Russia-Ukraine updates: Putin suspends key US-Russia nuclear treaty

A Ukrainian official has confirmed to ABC News that the United States provides coordinates to Ukraine for most strikes carried out in Russian-occupied areas of the country, using the U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers.

The Washington Post was first to report the news on Thursday, stating in an article: “Ukrainian officials said they require coordinates provided or confirmed by the United States and its allies for the vast majority of strikes using its advanced U.S.-provided rocket systems, a previously undisclosed practice that reveals a deeper and more operationally active role for the Pentagon in the war.”

The Ukrainian official who spoke with ABC News on Friday confirmed that Ukraine’s ability to strike targets with high precision has been thanks to support from the U.S. The official said Ukrainians wanted to get the maximum of out of every HIMARS.

“We get help for maximum effectiveness,” the official added.

And more broadly, the official said the cooperation between Ukraine and the U.S. in the war “is very close.”

Meanwhile, a senior Ukrainian official told ABC News on Friday that The Washington Post’s article “overestimates” the “role of the U.S. in the shooting process” of the HIMARS.

The senior official did not deny that the U.S. is involved in helping the Ukrainian military pinpoint targets with the U.S.-supplied HIMARS, but did not provide further detail.

-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge and Dragana Jovanovic

Russian forces have been firing waves of missiles and drones at energy targets across Ukraine overnight Thursday and throughout Friday morning.

At 10:50 a.m. local time, it was still unclear if the attacks had finished.

Ukraine’s state-run power grid operator Ukrenergo said in a statement that “several objects of high-voltage infrastructure” had been hit in the country’s eastern, western and southern regions, leading to outages in some areas.

The company added that Russian forces also attacked infrastructure sites overnight with lethal attack drones and missiles, “targeting power plants and transmission system facilities.”

ABC News reporters in Kyiv could hear the city’s air defense systems in action mid-morning Friday. At the time, there was no indication that targets had been hit in the capital, though the mayor said debris was reported in one district.

Meanwhile, the mayor of the northeastern city of Kharkiv said a missile had struck there. A regional official in the central city of Kryviy Rih said their critical infrastructure was also hit.

Ukrainian officials said Russian forces attacked the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia with 17 rockets, targeting energy infrastructure sites there. The mayor of the western city of Khmelnytskyi said their energy infrastructure was also hit.

There were currently no reports of casualties, but Ukrainian officials warned Friday that more Russian missiles could strike.

-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge, Dragana Jovanovic and Oleksiy Pshemyskiy

A Ukrainian official has told ABC News that Ukraine is expecting a major push by Russian forces in the eastern Donbas within the next ten days.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they did not think Russia has the resources to launch simultaneous offensives from the north, via Belarus, or the south, in the Zaporizhzhia region.

The Kremlin has been concentrating its resources and attacks along certain parts of the frontline in eastern Ukraine.

In recent days Russian forces have made creeping gains in and around the eastern city of Bakhmut and, according to unofficial reports, have cut-off one of the main roads in and out of the city on the Ukrainian side.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense has stated that Ukrainian forces inside the city are "increasingly isolated." Russia has been trying to capture Bakhmut for several months, but it appears that the Ukrainian's hold over that city is waning.

Two Ukrainian officials have recently told ABC News that the situation has deteriorated for Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine over the course of the last week.

The Institute for the Study of War said in its latest assessment on the war, published overnight, that Russian forces have "regained the initiative in Ukraine."

The ISW said it believes a concerted Russian push around the town of Kreminna, in the Luhansk region, the northern half of the Donbas, "indicates the Russian offensive has begun, even if Ukrainian forces are so far preventing Russian forces from securing significant gains."

-ABC News' Tom Soufi Burridge

French President Emmanuel Macron presented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a Legion of Honor during Zelenskyy's visit to the Élysée Palace in Paris on Wednesday evening.

A video showing Macron giving Zelenskyy the medal was posted to Macron's official Twitter account, with the caption: "Tribute to Ukraine and its people. Tribute to you, dear Volodymyr, for your courage and commitment."

-ABC News' Ellie Kaufman