Deleting iCloud Photos

Hi!

i logged into iCloud because my storage is full and I wanted to free up storage space. I logged onto iCloud using safari on my iPhone and selected the photos to delete, but the trash icon is grayed out. It says my iCloud photos are disabled (it is because I don’t want to upgrade my storage), but since I can’t delete anything from iCloud, I also can’t enable my iCloud photos. Is this a catch 22, or is there something else I’m missing?