Category: World news

(PUNTA CANA, DR) — Missing University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki’s clothes were found on the Dominican Republic beach where authorities believe she was last seen going for a swim, two police sources with knowledge of the investigation told ABC News on Monday.

The 20-year-old Konanki, a legal permanent U.S. resident and an Indian citizen, vanished early Thursday while she and a group of students were on a spring break trip to a resort in Punta Cana, according to the Loudoun County, Virginia, Sheriff’s office.

Konanki and one of her traveling companions were Loudoun County residents, the sheriff’s office said.

Konanki’s clothes were discovered on a portable beach bed close to the beach where she went missing, the sources told ABC News. Police have found no evidence of violence, according to the sources.

After going to a nightclub on Wednesday night, Konanki and a group of people went to the beach about 4 a.m. local time on Thursday, the sources said. The other women traveling with Konanki went back to their hotel about 5:55 a.m. and were captured on security camera returning to their rooms, the sources noted.

A man stayed behind with Konanki on the beach, according to a Dominican Republic investigative police report. The man, whose name was not released, told police that he and Konanki went for a swim and got caught by a big wave, the police report said.

The man, according to sources, told police that when he got back to the beach he threw up and went to sleep on a beach bed. When he woke up, Konanki was nowhere to be seen, the sources said.

Security video showed the man coming back to his hotel room at 9:55 a.m., according to the sources.

The man is not considered a suspect in Konanki’s death, the chief of the Civil Defense in the Dominican Republic told ABC News on Monday.

Right now, the investigation is being treated as an accident, the chief said.

Law enforcement authorities are increasing the perimeter of the search area of beaches and water in the ongoing operation to find Konanki, according to the chief.

Three Dominican officials involved in the investigation told ABC News over the weekend that Konanki is believed to have drowned in the ocean.

The last time Konanki was seen on the beach on security camera footage was around 4:15 a.m. Thursday, the Dominican Republic Public Ministry told ABC News.

The Public Ministry was first contacted by the U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic on Friday, the Ministry said.

Officials said Konanki’s friends who were with her around the time of her disappearance were questioned by police and have not been charged with crimes.

A joint investigation Konanki’s disappearance is being conducted by the FBI, the US Embassy in the Dominican Republic, the Dominican National Police and the Dominican Prosecutor’s office, sources close to the investigation told ABC News.

The investigators will question everyone involved in the incident again, including hotel employees and the man Konanki’s friends say she was with before she disappeared, the sources said.

All security camera footage since the day Konanki and her five friends arrived on the island is now being analyzed, sources said.

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(LONDON) — Ukrainian forces are struggling to prevent what could be a significant military setback, as their hold on the area of Russian territory they seized last year is becoming increasingly precarious.

A Russian offensive supported by North Korean troops in the past few days has made a serious advance in Russia’s Kursk region northeast of Ukraine, breaking through Ukrainian positions and forcing them to withdraw to new defense lines, according to Ukrainian and Russian military bloggers. Russia is attempting to cut Ukraine’s crucial supply road into Kursk, which is already under fire, meaning several thousand Ukrainian troops inside Russia are now at growing risk of encirclement.

Ukraine seized a foothold in the Kursk region with a surprise offensive in August, capturing hundreds of square miles of Russian territory, which it hoped to use as a bargaining chip in any peace negotiations. Russia for months has sought to dislodge the Ukrainians from the region, including with North Korean troops, but until recently had made slow progress while suffering heavy casualties.

Over the past week, Russian progress has dramatically increased, according to bloggers and Ukrainian troops on the ground, with Ukrainian troops clearly under severe pressure and forced to withdraw largely back toward the main town they control in the region, Sudzha. The Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed Sunday that Russian forces are “collapsing” the northern part of the Ukrainian lines in Kursk.

Russian forces have also succeeded in a flanking attack back across the border into Ukraine, aiming to reach the main supply road to the Ukrainian forces in Sudzha, according to open-source analysts. While Ukraine has, for now, reportedly blunted the Russian push, Russian troops are close to both sides of the route, which has already been under artillery and drone fire.

Over the weekend, Russian forces reached the outskirts of Sudzha itself, entering its industrial zone after launching an attack through a gas pipeline, according to military bloggers. Ukrainian units withdrew from much of their western flank in Kursk after Russian forces crossed the Psel River, allowing Russia to recapture several villages there, according to Clément Molin, a military analyst based in Lyon, France, and co-director of the Atum Mundi think tank.

The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, on Monday denied that Ukraine’s forces were at risk of encirclement, saying the situation was under control and they were inflicting heavy casualties on Russia.

Yurii Butusov, a prominent Ukrainian military journalist, confirmed Monday on his Telegram channel that the situation is “very difficult” but said there is currently no threat of Ukrainian troops being encircled, and that reinforcements continue to arrive into Sudzha.

Russia has intensified its efforts to drive Ukraine out of Kursk, as efforts at possible negotiations to end the three-year-old war have intensified under the Trump administration. The Kremlin has repeatedly signaled it will not start meaningful negotiations with Ukraine as long as it occupies parts of Kursk.

The ISW and other analysts have suggested the Trump administration’s sudden cutoff of U.S. intelligence sharing earlier this month is likely impacting Ukraine’s ability to defend in Kursk. The ISW noted that the Russian offensive appears to have intensified around the same time as President Donald Trump announced aid cutoff to Ukraine last week, suggesting Russia is trying to take advantage of it.

Ukrainian officials who spoke to ABC News last week said the curtailing of intelligence was intended to limit Ukraine’s strikes into Russia and warned it would hamper Ukraine’s ability to hit forces massing in Kursk.

“This will help Russians to concentrate their forces,” the source told ABC News on Thursday. “For example, now we know that North Korean soldiers are concentrating there again. We could have hit them preemptively, but now we can’t.”

The situation in Kursk, however, was already deteriorating before Trump halted intelligence sharing.

Ukraine’s deteriorating position in Kursk comes as it is finally seeing more positive developments on the eastern front in Donbas, where Russian forces’ advance appears to be stalling out and Ukraine is now mounting a number of counterattacks, according to independent military analysts.

For six months, Russia has crept forward toward the city of Pokrovsk, an important defensive hub, but there are signs its advance may now be close to exhausted there after suffering extremely high losses, according to Ukrainian military accounts and independent researchers.

Ukrainian troops in the past two weeks have managed to launch successful counterattacks on Russian positions around Pokrovsk, recapturing some ground. Ukraine has also managed to counterattack in another city, Toretsk, which, despite nine months of intense urban fighting, Russian forces have failed to capture.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has officially revoked access to the President’s Daily Brief, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard posted on Monday.

Former President Joe Biden — who barred Trump from receiving classified briefings after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob — will no longer receive the top-secret intelligence information according to Trump’s directive, a process he first ordered begun in February.

The moves are the latest in Trump’s retribution campaign against what he claims was “weaponization” of the justice and intelligence segments of the federal government under Biden and Democrats.

Trump also ordered revoked the security clearances of former Secretary of State Antony Blinken, former national security adviser Jake Sullivan, former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and attorneys Mark Zaid, Norman Eisen, and Andrew Weissman.

Gabbard confirmed the decision on X, writing: “Per @POTUS directive, I have revoked security clearances and barred access to classified information for Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, Lisa Monaco, Mark Zaid, Norman Eisen, Letitia James, Alvin Bragg, and Andrew Weissman, along with the 51 signers of the Hunter Biden “disinformation” letter. The President’s Daily Brief is no longer being provided to former President Biden.”

Andrew Weissman, who has most recently been a commentator on MSNBC, served as the chief prosecutor in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mark Zaid is a national security lawyer who represented the whistleblower at the heart of the Trump first impeachment inquiry involving Ukraine. Eisen is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, an attorney and a CNN legal analyst and co-founder of the States United Democracy Center.

In February, Trump issued an executive order to start the process of revoking security clearances held by dozens of intelligence officials he says falsely claimed in a letter during the 2020 election season that Hunter Biden’s laptop contained Russian disinformation.

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(ROME) — Pope Francis’ prognosis was “lifted” on Monday, marking his 25th consecutive day in the hospital, according to the Vatican.

“The improvements recorded in previous days have further consolidated, as confirmed by both blood tests and clinical objectivity and the good response to pharmacological therapy. For these reasons, the doctors decided to lift the prognosis,” the Holy See, the Vatican’s press office, said in a statement Monday.

Vatican sources told ABC News that Francis’ prognosis being lifted means he’s no longer in imminent danger, but the clinical picture still remains complex.

Regardless of the improvements, the 88-year-old pontiff will continue “for additional days, the pharmacological medical therapy in a hospital environment” due to the “complexity of the clinical picture and the significant infectious picture presented at hospitalization,” the Vatican said.

Francis’ doctors said there are positive signs of the pontiff’s recovery, but caution remains, according to the Vatican sources.

The pope will move back to noninvasive mechanical ventilation and will continue an antibiotic treatment, the Vatican sources said.

On Monday morning, Francis was able to participate in spiritual exercises for Lent for the Roman curia, received the Eucharist and then “went to the Chapel of the private apartment for a moment of prayer,” the Vatican said.

He continued to participate in the spiritual exercises via a video link and spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between prayer and rest, the Vatican said.

Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia.

On Sunday, Francis released a text of his Angelus address — his weekly address — thanking the doctors and nurses who have been caring for him in the hospital.

“During my prolonged hospitalization here, I too experience the thoughtfulness of service and the tenderness of care, in particular from the doctors and health care workers, whom I thank from the bottom of my heart,” the pope said.

Thursday will mark the 12th anniversary of when Francis was voted to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who previously resigned.

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(NEW YORK) — A U.S.-flagged oil tanker has collided with a Portuguese container ship in the North Sea, north of England, with both ships catching on fire, according to officials.

“HM Coastguard is currently co-ordinating the emergency response to reports of a collision between a tanker and cargo vessel off the coast of East Yorkshire resulting in fires aboard both vessels,” the U.K. coast guard said in a statement.

The U.S. ship was identified as the Stena Immaculate, while the Portuguese-flagged container ship was identified as the Solong.

A coast guard helicopter has been sent, as well as a fixed-wing aircraft, several lifeboats and vessels with firefighting capabilities, the coast guard said.

“The incident remains ongoing and an assessment of the likely counter pollution response required is being enacted,” the coast guard said in a statement.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(ROME and LONDON) — Pope Francis on Sunday spent his 24th consecutive day in the hospital receiving therapy and getting an update on world and church affairs, the Vatican’s press office said in a brief statement.

“The night was quiet, the pope is resting,” the Holy See said Sunday morning.

The Vatican said Sunday night that the pope’s condition remains “stable.” But his “overall situation remains complex, prompting doctors to maintain a guarded prognosis.”

The pope took part in mass Sunday morning in the chapel in his 10th-floor apartment in Gemelli hospital, the Vatican said. On Sunday evening, the pope watched live coverage of the first day of Spiritual Exercises for Lent for the Roman curia held in the Paul VI Audience Hall in the Vatican.

The Vatican said Pope Francis also continued his treatment Sunday and underwent motor and respiratory physiotherapy.

“His ventilation continues to switch from the day use of high-flow to anti-invasive mechanical ventilation at night,” according to the Vatican statement.

The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the substitute for general affairs of the secretary of state, Archbishop Penna Parra, visited the Pope in the hospital to update him on church and world matters on Sunday, according to the Vatican.

Officials with the Catholic Church, which the pope has led since 2013, said on Saturday that the 88-year-old pontiff had demonstrated a good response to therapy.

“The doctors, hoping to record these initial improvements in the coming days, are prudently keeping the prognosis as still guarded,” the Vatican said.

Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia.

Earlier Sunday, the pope released the text of his Angelus address, or weekly address, thanking the doctors and nurses caring for him. He also prayed for the many people around the world who are enduring illness, according to the Vatican.

“During my prolonged hospitalization here,” the pope said, “I too experience the thoughtfulness of service and the tenderness of care, in particular from the doctors and healthcare workers, whom I thank from the bottom of my heart.”

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(OTTAWA, CA) — Canada selected a new prime minister-elect on Sunday night, as Justin Trudeau’s reign nears a close amid a trade war with the United States.

Canada’s Liberal Party announced that Mark Carney was chosen to succeed Trudeau after party members voted in a nominating contest between four candidates.

In his acceptance speech, Carney addressed U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada and the threat Trump has posed towards the country, calling the current events the “greatest crisis of our lifetimes.”

“We didn’t ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves, so the Americans, they should make no mistake, in trade as in hockey, Canada will win,” Carney said.

Indirectly addressing Trump’s calls to make Canada the 51st state of the U.S., Carney added, “America is not Canada, and Canada never, ever will be part of America in any way, shape or form.”

Carney also criticized Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods and said he supports the retaliatory tariffs Canada has imposed on the U.S.

“Donald Trump has put, as we know, unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell, on how we make a living, he’s attacking Canadian workers, businesses and families… we cannot let him succeed and we won’t,” Carney said. “My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect.”

Carney is expected to be sworn in sometime this week by the governor general of Canada, a representative in Canada of Britain’s King Charles III.

The newly elected Liberal Party leader is expected to immediately call for an election as early as late April.

Trudeau, who was first elected prime minister in November 2015, announced on Jan. 6 his intention to resign as Liberal Party leader and prime minister once a new party leader is determined through what he said would be “a robust, nationwide, competitive process.”

The candidates for prime minister included Chrystia Freedman, Canada’s longtime deputy prime minister who, until December, served as Trudeau’s finance minister; Frank Baylis, a businessman and former member of the House of Commons; Karina Gould, a member of Parliment, who served in Trudeau’s Cabinet as minister of International Development and minister of Democratic Institutions; and Mark Carney, an economist who served as governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.

Heading into the vote, Carney, who has never held an elected office, had emerged as a front-runner.

Carney, who as governor of the Bank of Canada, is credited with helping to guide the country through the worst of the 2008 financial crisis as governor of the Bank of Canada. Carney has compared the comments of President Donald Trump, who has also threatened to make Canada the 51st U.S. state, to a villain in the Harry Potter series.

“When you think about what’s at stake in these ridiculous, insulting comments of the president, of what we could be, I view this as the sort of Voldemort of comments,” the 59-year-old Carney told supporters at an event in Winnipeg last month.

Trudeau initially said he would serve as prime minister until March 24. He will then be replaced by the new Liberal Party leader.

The Canadian Parliament was supposed to begin its new session of 2025 on Jan. 27, but Trudeau had asked the governor general to extend and not start a new session of Parliament until March 24.

“I’m a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians. I care deeply about this country, and I will always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians,” Trudeau said when he announced his plans in early January to resign.

At the time, Trudeau said he believed his resignation would “bring the temperature down” and allow Parliament to reset and get back to work “for Canadians.”

“Parliament needs a reset, I think, needs to calm down a bit and needs to get to work for Canadians,” Trudeau said when answering reporters’ questions following his announcement. “Removing me as the leader who will fight the next election for the party should decrease the polarization that we have right now.”

Support for Trudeau’s party has declined steadily for months, with the Liberals falling in early January to their lowest level of support in years, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

In recent days, Trudeau has emerged as the face of Canada in a trade war that erupted with the United States over 25% tariffs that Trump imposed on products from Canada.

Canada countered by imposing a 25% tariff on goods from the United States, including American orange juice, peanut butter, coffee, appliances, footwear, cosmetics, motorcycles, and certain pulp and paper products.

Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said a second wave of retaliatory tariffs would be suspended after Trump announced on Thursday that he is pausing for a month tariffs on some products from Canada and Mexico.

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(SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINCAN REPUBLIC) — A University of Pittsburgh student who was reported missing after traveling to the Dominican Republic last week is believed to have died by drowning, officials confirmed to ABC News on Sunday.

The student has been identified as Sudiksha Konanki, a legal permanent resident of the United States and an Indian citizen. She was one of six female students traveling in Punta Cana, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.

Konanki and one of the other students were Loudoun County, Virginia, residents, the sheriff’s office said.

Three Dominican officials involved in the investigation told ABC News that Konanki was walking on the beach with six people on March 5 before she is believed to have drowned in the ocean.

At some point, most of the group went back to the hotel during the night, but one person stayed with her on the beach, according to a Dominican Republic investigative police report.

She and this person went for a swim and were caught by a big wave, the police report said.

The last time Konanki was seen on the beach on security camera footage was around 4:15 a.m. on March 6, the Dominican Republic Public Ministry told ABC News.

The Public Ministry was first contacted by the U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic the next day, on March 7, the Ministry said.

Officials said the missing student’s friends with her close to the time of her disappearance have been questioned by police and have not been charged with anything.

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(LONDON) — The U.S. is “just about” ready to lift its freeze on intelligence sharing with Ukraine, President Donald Trump said Sunday, as American and Ukrainian negotiators prepare for bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia intended to move toward a peace deal to end Russia’s three-year-old invasion.

“Well, we just about have,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One when asked if he would consider resuming intelligence sharing. “We want to do anything we can to get Ukraine serious about getting something done,” he added.

Trump’s administration has embarked on a dramatic pivot away from the “ironclad” backing of Ukraine practiced by former President Joe Biden’s administration.

Trump has falsely blamed Ukraine for starting the war, tried to undermine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s legitimacy, sought to strong-arm Kyiv into a controversial minerals sharing deal and froze military aid and intelligence support in a bid to force Ukraine into making concessions to Russia.

Tuesday’s talks in Riyadh are intended to revitalize bilateral relations following weeks of tense exchanges between Washington, D.C., and Kyiv, which culminated in an explosive Oval Office confrontation between Trump, Zelenskyy and Vice President JD Vance.

The U.S. delegation in Saudi Arabia will include Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz. The Ukrainian team will be led by Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office. The U.S. side is expecting Ukraine to show willingness to make peace, Trump suggested on Sunday.

“We’ll be looking at a lot of things,” he said. “We have big meetings coming up. As you know, it’s Saudi Arabia that’s going to include Russia. It’ll be Ukraine. We’ll see if we can get something done.”

“I think everybody wants to see it get done,” the president added. “We’re going to make a lot of progress.”

“I think they will sign the minerals deal,” Trump said when asked about progress on the controversial agreement. “I want them to want peace.” Trump claimed that Ukraine has not yet shown that willingness.

Trump avoided answering whether he would place sanctions or tariffs on Russia and pointed to White House officials’ upcoming meetings in Saudi Arabia. The president also avoided giving a definitive answer when asked if the U.S. would resume aid to Ukraine if the minerals deal is signed.

Zelenskyy will travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet with the kingdom’s crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman.

“Tomorrow, we will continue working to bring peace closer — there will be my visit to Saudi Arabia,” the Ukrainian president wrote on social media Sunday. “Also, today, the meeting of our teams — Ukraine and the United States — in Saudi Arabia has been further prepared. We hope for results — both in bringing peace closer and in continuing support.”

On Monday morning, Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram, “Ukraine has been seeking peace since the very first second of the war and we have always said that the only reason the war continues is Russia.”

The public U.S.-Ukraine break has prompted concern among European leaders, with leaders both rallying around Zelenskyy and urging him to repair his fraying relations with Trump. Officials in Russia appeared jubilant, openly suggesting that the Trump administration had aligned its views with the Kremlin’s.

Trump and his top officials have said that both Ukraine and Russia will be expected to make concessions in pursuit of a peace deal to end Moscow’s invasion, which itself is only the latest chapter in more than a decade of cross-border aggression.

Trump last week suggested in a post to Truth Social that he was “strongly considering large-scale sanctions” and tariffs on Russia until a deal is reached, adding that Moscow “is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now.” Trump also told a joint session of Congress he had received “strong signals” that Russia is ready to make peace.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said last week that the U.S.-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia are a “positive” development, though stressed there are unresolved “nuances.”

“The question is who to negotiate with?” Peskov told reporters. Russia has repeatedly framed Zelenskyy as an illegitimate president, citing the delay to planned 2024 presidential elections in Ukraine necessitated by the imposition of martial law.

The Kremlin has also cited a September 2022 Ukrainian decree in which Zelenskyy declared negotiations with Putin “impossible,” after Moscow claimed to have annexed four partially-occupied Ukrainian regions.

Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine are continuing their long-range missile and drone strike campaigns. Deadly weekend strikes by Russia prompted condemnation from several European nations.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, for example, wrote on X, “This is what happens when someone appeases barbarians. More bombs, more aggression, more victims.”

Sunday night saw Russia launch 176 attack drones into Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian air force, of which 130 were shot down and 42 lost in flight without causing damage. The air force reported impacts in Kharkiv, Poltava and Kyiv regions.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down nine Ukrainian drones overnight.

ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) –At least 20 people have died and 55 are injured as the casualties continue to rise Saturday following an overnight blitz by Russia near Donetsk in Ukraine, officials said.

“Last night, the Russian army fired two ballistic missiles at the center of Dobropillya in the Donetsk region,” according to a translated statement on Telegram from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Saturday morning. “After our services arrived at the scene, they launched another strike, deliberately targeting rescuers. A vile and inhumane tactic for intimidation that the Russians often resort to.

Zelenskyy confirmed that several children were among those injured, while a total of eight five-story buildings were damaged.

“I thank all emergency services, police, the State Emergency Service, and doctors who, despite the threat of repeated strikes, are not afraid and are saving people from this terror. To everyone who protects life, risking their own,” Zelenskyy said. “Such strikes show that Russia’s goals are unchanged. Therefore, it is very important to continue to do everything to protect life, strengthen our air defense, and tighten sanctions against Russia. Everything that helps Putin finance the war must break down.”

These latest strikes come just over 24 hours after the United States paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine. This means Ukrainian forces have now lost access to Maxar satellite imagery, a Ukrainian military source told ABC News as Russia continued to carry out attacks on the country this week.

Ukrainian access to U.S. government-purchased commercial satellite imagery, which includes Maxar, was suspended, a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) spokesperson told ABC News.

“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,” an NGA spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.

Starlink remains operational, and Ukraine continues to use the company’s satellite systems, a U.S. official told ABC News.

Ukraine’s European allies had harsh words for Russia and President Donald Trump’s stance on the war following the night of deadly strikes.

“This is what happens when someone appeases barbarians. More bombs, more aggression, more victims. Another tragic night in Ukraine,” Polish President Donald Tusk posted to X.

The European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, Kaja Kallas, said, “Russian missiles keep relentlessly falling on Ukraine, bringing more death and more destruction. Once again, Putin shows he has no interest in peace. We must step up our military support – otherwise, even more Ukrainian civilians will pay the highest price.”

Russia has dramatically increased the number of drones launched against Ukrainian cities in recent months.

It now appears likely that Russia will try to increase these attacks at a critical time as the end of U.S. intelligence sharing and supplies of anti-aircraft missiles could weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend against them.

With Russian missiles and drone attacks a nightly occurrence in Ukraine, the country has become largely reliant on Western anti-air weapons to defeat incoming projectiles.

U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine had allowed Kyiv to give warnings to targeted areas ahead of Russian drone and missile strikes, tracking Russian aircraft taking off, drones being launched and missiles being fired.

Trump has repeatedly — and falsely — blamed Ukraine for starting the war with Russia while seeking to undermine Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as president. The White House is pushing Kyiv to accept a deal to end the fighting and to sign an agreement giving the U.S. access to Ukrainian mineral resources.

ABC News’ Morgan Winsor and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

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