PayPal is suspending its services in Russia in protest to the country’s “violent military assault in Ukraine.” Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s vice prime minister, tweeted a letter from PayPal CEO Dan Schulman, confirming the company’s plan to close its Russian business, according to Reuters.
In the letter, Shulman adds, “Under the current conditions, we are stopping PayPayl services in Russia.” “We’re also doing everything we can to support our regional employees at this extremely trying period.”
PayPal has previously only been available in Russia for cross-border payments, according to Reuters. It stopped admitting new Russian users earlier this week, but has now decided to shut down all of its services – a move that also affects Xoom, a PayPal-owned money transfer business.
Because of the financial restrictions imposed by the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and others, some Russian users may not have been able to use their bank cards to make PayPal payments. As a result of the sanctions, some users have been unable to use Apple Pay or Google Pay, as they target Russia’s top financial institutions, preventing bank clients from making card payments to businesses and services registered in sanctioned nations.