Trump says Putin “kept his word” on not attacking Ukraine for a week. Russian spy spacecraft have intercepted Europe’s key satellites, officials believe, according to the FT. Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia kill three, injure one other.
Trump says Putin “kept his word” on not attacking Ukraine for a week
U.S. President Donald Trump said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin “kept his word” on not attacking Ukraine for one week — despite the perception that Putin broke the deal with a strike after just four days.
“It was Sunday to Sunday, and it opened up. And he hit them hard last night,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday afternoon in the Oval Office.
“He kept his word on that. It was — it’s a lot, you know, one week. We’ll take anything, because it’s really, really cold over there, but it was on Sunday, and he went from Sunday to Sunday.”
Speaking at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Kyiv Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said: “Last night, Russia broke its promise, that means either Russia now believes a week has fewer than four days instead of seven, or it is genuinely betting only on war and simply waited for the coldest days of this winter.”
Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Olha Stefanishyna said the embassy on Tuesday handed over to the U.S. Department of State detailed reports of the attacks that Russia launched on Ukraine after a supposed halt in energy strikes.
The reports included detailed information on all the attacks that Russia carried out after it reportedly agreed to pause the strikes. The notes detailed last night’s attack, Stefanishyna told a news conference on the sidelines of the Ukrainian Week in Washington on Tuesday.
The embassy prepared the reports in cooperation with Ukraine’s Armed Forces and Energy Ministry. Stefanishyna added that the information her team had collected will influence the talks as it raises doubts over Russia’s commitment to peace.
She said she hopes the U.S. will approach Russia with more pressure and less illusions, Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne said.
Russian spy spacecraft have intercepted Europe’s key satellites, officials believe, according to FT
European security officials believe two Russian space vehicles have intercepted the communications of at least a dozen key satellites over the continent, the Financial Times said on Wednesday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.
Officials believe that the likely interceptions, which have not previously been reported, risk not only compromising sensitive information transmitted by the satellites but could also allow Moscow to manipulate their trajectories or even crash them.
For several years, military and civilian space authorities in the west have been tracking the activities of Luch-1 and Luch-2 — two Russian objects that have carried out repeated suspicious manoeuvres in orbit.
According to orbital data and ground-based telescopic observations, they have lingered nearby for weeks at a time, particularly over the past three years. Since its launch in 2023, Luch-2 has approached 17 European satellites.
The European satellites approached by Luch 1 and 2 are primarily used for civilian purposes, such as satellite television, but also carry sensitive government and some military communications.
Intelligence gathered by Luch 1 and 2 could also help Russia co-ordinate less overt attacks on western interests. Monitoring other satellites can reveal who is using them and where — information that could later be exploited for targeted ground-based jamming or hacking operations.
In other news, Govsatcom — the EU program which pools existing communications capacities from satellites owned by the 27 EU governments — launched last week, EU Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius told a conference in Brussels on Tuesday.
Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia kill three, injure one other
Russia carried out a total of 790 airstrikes and attacks with drones, artillery and multiple launch rocket systems on 32 towns and villages in Zaporizhzhia region on Tuesday, head of the regional military administration Ivan Fedorov said.
Two 18-year-olds were killed in a Russian drone strike on Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday. At least 12 others, including four children were wounded. A 58-year-old man was killed by an artillery strike in the village of Preobrazhenka.
Russia launched 11 airstrikes at the region, used 466 drones of various types, of which most were FPV drones, fired from multiple launch rocket system six times and carried out 307 artillery strikes.
The authorities have received 75 reports of damaged homes, cars and critical infrastructure sites.
