By Enyichukwu Enemanna
U.S. aerospace firm Maxar Technologies has announced that it has disabled Ukrainian users’ access to satellite imagery on one U.S. government platform, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration suspends intelligence sharing with Kyiv.
In a statement on Friday, Maxar said it has contracts with the U.S. government and dozens of allied and partner nations, adding: “Each customer makes their own decisions on how they use and share that data.”
The company said the contract in question is the Global Enhanced GEOINT Delivery (GEGD), a U.S. government programme providing access to commercial satellite imagery collected by the United States.
“The U.S. government has decided to temporarily suspend Ukrainian accounts in GEGD,” Maxar said, referring further questions to the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which confirmed the action.
“In accordance with the administration’s directive on support to Ukraine, NGA has temporarily suspended access to the Global Enhanced GEOINT Delivery system, or GEGD, which is the primary portal for access to U.S. government-purchased commercial imagery,” a spokesperson for the agency said.
“We take our contractual commitments very seriously, and there is no change to other Maxar customer programmes,” it added.
John Ratcliffe, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said on Wednesday that Washington had suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine, piling pressure on President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government to cooperate with the Trump administration in convening peace talks with Russia.
Trump and Zelensky openly argued during a White House meeting, clashing over the need for compromises with what the Ukrainian president called Russia’s “killer” leader—referring to Vladimir Putin, who invaded Ukraine three years ago in a war the U.S. claims it wants to end.
Trump berated Zelensky as they sat in the Oval Office, telling him to be more “thankful” and saying, “You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel.”
He told the Ukrainian president to either “make a deal” with Russia “or we’re out.”
Following the freezing of military aid to Ukraine by the U.S. after the clash, EU leaders have rallied support for Kyiv.
