Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has strongly urged tech giants, including Microsoft, to ban their products in Russia.
The 44-year-old politician has called on tech firms to completely stop people in Russia from using their services to help "stop the war".
Tagging Microsoft, Oracle and SAP, he tweeted on Sunday (13.03.22): "Now can be no 'half' decisions or 'halftones'! There is only black and white, good or evil! You are either for peace or support the bloody Russian aggressor to kill Ukrainian children and women.
@Microsoft @Oracle @SAP, stop supporting your products in Russia, stop the war!"
Microsoft has already banned new sales in Russia, Oracle “suspended all operations” in the country and SAP confirmed it is “stopping business in Russia aligned with sanctions” and halting sales.
Responding to Zelensky, Oracle wrote in a series of tweets: "Oracle was among the first to entirely cut off business in Russia in support of the people of Ukraine ... Oracle has ended all operations in the Russian Federation.
Access to support has been cut off and software updates and patches are no longer available for download. Oracle has suspended all consulting and advanced customer support services ... Oracle will not explore alternative mechanisms to provide support or services to affected entities (such as allowing services to be re-subscribed in an authorized location or using third-party support “partners”. (sic)"
It comes after Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov begged "all game development companies and esports platforms" to cease business with Russia amid the crisis.
In an open letter, he wrote: "I am sure that you will not only hear, but also do everything possible to protect Ukraine, Europe and, finally, the entire democratic world. I appeal to temporarily block all Russian and Belorussian accounts, temporarily stop the participation of Russian and Belorussian teams and gamers in all international esports events and cancel all international events holding on the territory of Russia and Belarus. We are sure that such actions will motivate the citizens of Russia to proactively stop the disgraceful military aggression."
The likes of Sony, EA and CD Projekt Red have all paused sales.
