Apple halts all device sales in Russia in response to invasion of Ukraine

Apple has stopped selling its products in Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine, the company said this afternoon. The company stopped shipping products into Russian retail channels at some point last week.

Russian state-controlled media companies have had their apps removed from Apple's App Stores in all territories outside of Russia, and the company has stopped providing traffic and live incidents data.

In an internal email, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the company was donating to humanitarian relief efforts and providing aid for the unfolding refugee crisis.

Apple is one of many tech companies that have delisting and deprioritizing Russian state-controlled media outlets. Microsoft has removed the apps from the Windows Store and limited their presence on the Bing search engine, while YouTube has blocked the content from Europe and demonetized it elsewhere. Meta provides tools to safeguard the accounts and personal data of Ukrainian and Russian citizens, as well as taking down bot networks on Facebook and Instagram. The US and other countries have stopped the export of chips, telecom equipment, and other hardware to Russia because of the Ukraine invasion.

Apple said in a statement that they are in communication with relevant governments on the actions they are taking.