The American space technology company Maxar Technologies announced on Friday (March 7) that the Trump administration has temporarily suspended Ukraine’s access to its satellite imagery.
Maxar is one of the leading providers of commercial satellite imagery to Ukrainian users. Ukraine has been using these overhead images for a long time to track Russian military movements, assess terrain, and help plan military operations.
In a statement, Maxar stated, “Maxar has contracts with the U.S. government and dozens of global allies and partner countries to provide satellite imagery and other geospatial data. Each customer determines how they use and share the data themselves.”
“We take our contractual commitments very seriously,” Maxar added, “and support for other clients and their projects or contracts remains unchanged.”
The company also mentioned that one of the government contracts is the GEGD (Global Enhanced GEOINT Delivery Program), which is a U.S. government program that grants access to commercial satellite imagery commissioned and collected by the U.S. government.
“The U.S. government has decided to suspend Ukraine’s account in the GEGD,” Maxar said. The company also stated that for further inquiries, one should contact the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which has confirmed the Trump administration’s action.
“In line with government directives to support Ukraine, the NGA has temporarily suspended Ukraine’s access to the GEGD, which serves as the primary gateway to access commercially purchased imagery by the U.S. government,” a spokesperson for NGA said.
The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), John Ratcliffe, confirmed on Wednesday (March 5) that the U.S. has suspended intelligence sharing with Ukraine as part of pressuring the Ukrainian government to cooperate with the Trump administration in negotiations with Russia.
“Trump had doubts about whether President Zelensky was truly committed to the peace process, so he said, ‘Let’s pause for now,'” Ratcliffe stated in an interview with Fox Business News.
Ratcliffe expressed his hope that this suspension could be lifted soon and emphasized that he would continue to collaborate with Ukraine to achieve peace.