The US “freeze” on military aid was not the only “penalty” from the Oval Office to Kiev after last Friday’s explosion. The US as revealed yesterday by top orders stopped providing information to Ukraine and not just at the official level.

The HIMARS weapon systems which use precision satellite data that Western allies have been providing Kiev with since 2pm on Wednesday are receiving none at all today, which practically renders them useless.

The move on the part of the White House to “freeze” arms shipments even on contracts that are in the process of being executed is not a practice that has been implemented only by Donald Trump but also by his predecessor Joe Biden to Israel a few months ago.

The facts in Ukraine may be different, but no one can say that they did not expect such a move by Washington towards Zelensky in order to “run” the issue of the rare earths deal and make Kiev step back so that there can be developments on the issue of the peace deal with Moscow as well. But for the US to go “black” from its satellites to the medium-range weapon systems it has given Ukraine may go beyond the limits of the “punishment” that should be imposed on the Ukrainian president.

Without precision satellite data the HIMARS which the Ukrainians have deployed very close to Kursk sharply increases the Russian advantage in the field and correspondingly the risk of Russian strikes on Ukrainian positions. The move on Washington’s part is data unprecedented and considerably more painful for Ukraine than not sending weapons. Washington, knowing that similar weapon systems with software controlled by the British have been received by the Ukrainian military from London, has asked its closest ally across the Atlantic to do the same…

For Ukrainians who have been living the nightmare of war, invasion and casualties on a daily basis for more than three years, the loss of advanced attack systems is a given. But a bigger problem for Zelensky is the fact that Washington did not even inform Kiev of the move, putting in immediate danger first those in the Ukrainian military who are tasked with handling these systems in the line of contact with the Russians and those who rely on the data provided by the systems and US satellites to defend critical military and civilian installations.

This particular American move is at the same time another important “gift” for the Kremlin and a substantial one at that. Without the US information a large part of Ukraine’s defense and offensive systems are “blind” and most importantly Washington without keeping even the types made it public by directly giving this information to the Kremlin. In any case, given that there has been a rapprochement and the distances for an agreement between Trump and Zelensky have decreased, it is possible that the American President will ask for the restoration of critical functions. After all, the “damage” to the trust part has been done for days…