The ex-news director of Russia's largest search engine urged his former colleagues to quit, accusing the company of censoring Russia's invasion into Ukraine

The ex-head of news at Russia's largest internet company has some advice for his former colleagues.

Lev Gershenzon worked at Yandex for four years. He took to Facebook early Tuesday morning to warn people still working at the company, which is one of the largest search engines in Russia, that it was contributing to the censorship of the country.

The basis and driving force of the war is the fact that a significant part of the Russian population believes there is no war. The news costs human lives every day. My former colleagues are also responsible for this.

Gershenzon's post was written in Russian and was translated by journalist Ilya Lozovsky. The translation has been verified by Insider.

Gershenzon said the costs that the employees might face don't compare to the harm that the service has been causing since the beginning of the war.

He wrote that it was not too late to stop being an accessory to a crime.

Gershenzon is the CEO of a Berlin-based startup called Detectum.

Russian forces under the command of President Putin invaded Ukraine last Thursday and are pushing into the country. Putin justified the assault with claims of genocide.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy said he has applied for membership in the European Union, which has already helped the nation by sending weapons, imposing economic sanctions, and barring Russian media.

Russia has been orchestrating a campaign of misinformation to justify its actions in Ukraine. American internet companies have had to deal with misinformation.