Last week, it became known that the American aerospace company Maxar Technologies had disabled Ukraine's free access to its satellite images as part of the US government's GEGD program. For paid users, everything remained the same. Maxar photos were used by OSINT researchers and Ukrainian intelligence.
Last week, it became known that the American aerospace company Maxar Technologies had disabled Ukraine's free access to its satellite images as part of the US government's GEGD program. For paid users, everything remained the same. Maxar photos were used by OSINT researchers and Ukrainian intelligence.
Maxar images are of high resolution, which in some cases can be very critical. Photos of night damage could be obtained in the morning or at lunchtime. This was told to Forbes Ukraine by Marat Utyushev, the former head of the Innovation Center of the Ministry of Defense.
The military could receive the same information through European partners, Utyushev suggests. But this could affect operational efficiency.
Another option is to purchase images from three distributors available to Ukrainians: the German companies European Space Imaging and GAF AG, and the French NIGMA conseil.
"The speed will be the same, the price will hardly differ from cooperating directly with Maxar - the distributors' goal is to increase local sales," said Daria Verbytska from the Molfar intelligence agency to Forbes Ukraine.
Ukrainian intelligence also operates two ICEYE satellites, but their images are not as accurate. The first satellite was purchased by Serhiy Prytula's charitable foundation in August 2022. The second was purchased with funds from the German government and the Rheinmetall defense concern, but the parties do not disclose the date of its launch and the terms of the access agreement.
