Apple stops all sales of its products in Russia following Ukraine invasion

Apple has suspended sales of its hardware products – including the iPhone – in Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

According to a statement from the company, which you can read in full below, Apple has stopped all exports to the country, but it will continue to evaluate the situation. If you go to Apple’s Russian online store now, products like the iPhone and even the Mac are listed as unavailable and cannot be added to the cart.

Apple also recently set limitations for Apple Pay in Russia, thanks to newly imposed sanctions, and it yanked Russian news outlets Sputnik and RT News from the App Store outside of the country. It disabled traffic and live incident reports in Apple Maps in Ukraine, as well. Google also did that in Google Maps, to prevent people from using it to study troop movements. 

Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov published an open letter to Apple last week, urging the company to stop Russia from accessing its products. In the letter, Fedorov, who also serves as the Minister of Digital Transformation, said such actions “will motivate youth and active population of Russia to proactively stop the disgraceful military aggression”.

Here is Apple’s full statement (via Telegraph):

“We are deeply concerned about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and stand with all of the people who are suffering as a result of the violence. We are supporting humanitarian efforts, providing aid for the unfolding refugee crisis, and doing all we can to support our teams in the region.

We have taken a number of actions in response to the invasion. We have paused all product sales in Russia. Last week, we stopped all exports into our sales channel in the country. Apple Pay and other services have been limited. RT News and Sputnik News are no longer available for download from the App Store outside Russia. And we have disabled both traffic and live incidents in Apple Maps in Ukraine as a safety and precautionary measure for Ukrainian citizens.

We will continue to evaluate the situation and are in communication with relevant governments on the actions we are taking. We join all those around the world who are calling for peace.”