All of these reflect Moscow’s long-held positions, and Trump’s echoing of them suggested his administration’s vision was aligned with the Kremlin’s.
There are certain capabilities, including “higher-end” surveillance and reconnaissance using satellites that “only the United States can provide,” said Matthew Kroenig, vice president of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security in Washington.While the extent of intelligence sharing between the U.S. and Ukraine is not known, experts said it likely shows Kyiv near real-time buildup of Russian troop deployments and helps target long-range strikes.
Ukraine’s allies do not have as much satellite capability as the U.S. but could launch more, or Ukraine could use commercial systems if Trump cuts off intelligence again, experts said. The latter would likely have to come from a European provider — in March, the American satellite imagery company Maxar Technologies confirmed itfollowing the administration’s decision to pull intelligence sharing.Ukraine also needs an alternative to Elon Musk’s satellite network Starlink, which is critical for Ukrainian defensive and civilian communications. European defense companies are discussing creating a satellite alliance but don’t currently have an alternative on the same scale.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy answers journalists’ questions near a house destroyed by Thursday’s Russian strike on a residential neighborhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)President Volodymyr Zelenskyy answers journalists’ questions near a house destroyed by Thursday’s Russian strike on a residential neighborhood in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
If Trump walks away, or if Kyiv rejects a deal and keeps fighting with European support, it won’t necessarily mean “the collapse of Ukraine” although more people will almost certainly die if the U.S. pulls its air defenses and intelligence-sharing capabilities, Heisbourg said.
Trump has jolted European leaders into awareness that they need to take responsibility for their own defense, regardless of who occupies the White House, experts said.Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt to Ukraine’s mobilization effort and Western arms supplies to Kyiv.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Wednesday that Ukraine had accepted an unconditional truce only because it was being pushed back on the battlefield, where the bigger Russian forces have the upper hand.Meanwhile, Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded in attacks every day this year, according to a U.N. report presented Tuesday in New York.
The U.N. Human Rights Office said in the report that in the first three months of this year, it had verified 2,641 civilian casualties in Ukraine. That was almost 900 more than during the same period last year.Also, between April 1-24, civilian casualties in Ukraine were up 46% from the same weeks in 2024, it said.