Russia attacks Ukraine's energy supplies as US cuts its access to satellite images

The U.S. government said Friday it halted Ukrainian access to unclassified satellite images that had been used to help it fight back against Russia.

The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency told The Associated Press the decision reflected "the Administration's directive on support to Ukraine," without elaborating. The satellite imagery provider Maxar Technologies confirmed the U.S. government decision to "temporarily suspend" Ukrainian access.

Air-defense systems supplied by the West are crucial for Ukraine, but further U.S. help is uncertain under President Donald Trump, who held a tempestuous — and televised — White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week in which he questioned Ukraine's determination to end the war. Zelenskyy has since said the blowup with the Trump administration was "regrettable."

European Union leaders, mindful they may need to shoulder more of the burden for arming Ukraine and strengthen their own defenses, agreed on a plan Thursday to significantly build up their military spending.

Ukraine is having a tough time on the battlefield. An onslaught by Russia's bigger army is straining short-handed Ukrainian forces at places along the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.

Officials from the U.S. and Ukraine will meet in Saudi Arabia next week to discuss ending the war, which began more than three years ago when Russia launched a full-scale invasion. On Friday, President Trump said on social media he was "strongly considering" additional sanctions on Russia to force it into peace talks with Ukraine.

Later, when asked by a reporter during an Oval Office exchange if Russian President Vladimir Putin was taking advantage of the U.S. pause on intelligence-sharing to attack Ukraine, Trump responded: "I think he's doing what anybody else would."

Ukraine's energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, described the overnight attack on Facebook as "massive."

"Russia is trying to hurt ordinary Ukrainians by striking energy and gas production facilities, without abandoning its goal of leaving us without light and heat, and causing the greatest harm to ordinary citizens," Halushchenko wrote.

Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine's power grid during the war. The attacks have depleted electricity generation capacity and disrupted critical heating and water supplies. Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of "weaponizing winter" in an effort to erode civilian morale.

Zelenskyy on Friday won the support of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for Ukraine's proposals to take some first steps toward stopping the war, including a halt on firing missiles, drones and bombs at energy and other civilian infrastructure. Zelenskyy has also proposed ceasing combat operations in the Black Sea to allow safe shipping.

Erdogan said that he also wants the shooting to stop without delay.

"We support the idea of an immediate ceasefire and the cessation of attacks in the air and at sea as a confidence-building measure between the parties," he said in a video call with European leaders.

Zelenskyy first suggested those initial steps in a post on X on Tuesday, when he said that he was ready to work under President Trump's "strong leadership" to get a lasting peace.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that the energy supply is a legitimate target in the war, because it's "linked with Ukraine's military industrial complex and weapons production."

Russian air defenses downed 39 Ukrainian drones overnight, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Ukraine's largest private gas producer, DTEK, said that the overnight bombardment in the Odesa region was Russia's sixth attack in the past two and a half weeks on its facilities. Its plants in two other regions were also struck.

Russia fired 67 missiles from air, land and sea, and launched 194 strike and decoy drones, Ukraine's air force said. Their primary target was Ukraine's natural gas extraction facilities, it said.

For the first time, Ukraine deployed French Mirage-2000 warplanes delivered a month ago to help repel the attack, according to the air force. Ukraine also has Western-supplied F-16 fighter jets to shoot down Russian missiles.

Ukrainian defenses downed 34 missiles and 100 drones, the air force said, while up to 10 missiles didn't reach their targets and 86 drones were lost from radars, presumably jammed by electronic warfare.

The Maxar Technologies system that Ukraine previously had access to allows the U.S. government to order commercial images that can be shared freely, as opposed to the highly classified images taken by its top-secret satellites. A Ukrainian website associated with its military, Militarnyi, first reported the satellite image service had been blocked.

During the war, Ukraine has used those images to plan attacks, see the results of their strikes and monitor the movement of Russian forces. Even before the war began in February 2022, commercial satellite imagery allowed the Biden administration to share otherwise classified information about what it knew.

"Maxar has contracts with the U.S. government and dozens of allied and partner nations around the world to provide satellite imagery and other geospatial data," said Gia DeHart, a spokesperson for Maxar Intelligence's U.S. government business. "Each customer makes their own decisions on how they use and share that data."