Darren Lyn
08 March 2025•Update: 09 March 2025
HOUSTON, United States
Commercial satellite imaging company, Maxar, confirmed Friday that it is blocking all satellite images shared by the US government with Ukraine as part of President Donald Trump's freeze on aid to that country which is at war with Russia.
Experts said the move severely constrains Ukrainian drone pilots trying to defend their homeland.
Maxar said in a statement that it has contracts with the US government and "dozens of allied and partner nations around the world to provide satellite imagery and other geospatial data."
It said one of the contracts is with the Global Enhanced GEOINT Delivery program (GEGD), which provides access to commercial satellite imagery that has been collected by the US government.
"The US government has temporarily suspended Ukrainian accounts in GEGD," it said. "We take our contractual commitments very seriously. There is no change to the way we support our other customers nor their programs or contracts."
The move by the Trump administration comes after a contentious meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House last week as the two leaders butted heads as they tried to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
The blocking of satellite imagery further solidifies Trump's threat to drastically freeze US aid and intelligence support to its ally. Experts said the widespread jamming of GPS navigation combined with the elimination of high-resolution satellite imagery will hamper drone pilots' targeting of Russian forces and spotting their military's movements.
"The change hinders Ukraine's awareness of the Russian forces behind the frontlines and obstructs their deep strike campaign that has targeted Russian supply lines and ammunition depots," said Dimko Zhluktenko, who works in Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, according to Business Insider.
The move comes days after Trump announced an indefinite pause in US aid to Ukraine, leaving the future of a major allied weapons source in doubt.
Without Maxar imagery, "deepstrike drone operators will not get as precise targeting," said Zhluktenko.
"Intelligence services will have worse understanding of Russian stockpiles and repair factories (and have) a worse understanding of how much capacity Russia has left," he added.
Mark Cancian, a senior advisor on defense and security at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider that the indefinite pause in US aid will effectively cut Ukraine's total equipment intake in half and weaken its military's ability to fight.
"That's very serious because even with all the aid they were receiving previously, they were barely hanging on," said Cancian.
According to the State Department, the US has provided $65.9 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since Russia began its “special military operation” in February 2022.
