Microsoft has declared itself as the latest company to suspend all sales & services in Russia in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.
A post on the Microsoft blog announced the news from president and vice chair Brad Smith. “Like the rest of the world,” he wrote. “We are horrified, angered and saddened by the images and news coming from the war in Ukraine and condemn this unjustified, unprovoked and unlawful invasion by Russia.”
“We are announcing today that we will suspend all new sales of Microsoft products and services in Russia. In addition, we are coordinating closely and working in lockstep with the governments of the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom, and we are stopping many aspects of our business in Russia in compliance with governmental sanctions decisions.”
“We believe we are most effective in aiding Ukraine when we take concrete steps in coordination with the decisions being made by these governments and we will take additional steps as this situation continues to evolve”. The post concluded “Like so many others, we stand with Ukraine in calling for the restoration of peace, respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and the protection of its people”.
The move comes two days following a public appeal from the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine. His post asked for PlayStation and Xbox to cease operations and ban accounts following the Russian invasion of his country. Earlier this week, Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red also announced yesterday it would suspend all sales of its games in Russia & Belarus. This also included all games on the The Witcher studio’s own GOG service on PC.
