Russia-Ukraine War: Kyiv urges global businesses to suspend operations 'with or in Russia'

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba on Tuesday, March 8, demanded in a defiant tone for foreign companies in America, Europe, and the West to immediately halt operations with Russia over the latter’s military offensive against Ukrainian civilians. In a letter posted on Twitter, Kuleba requested the foreign companies to sever business ties with Moscow in an impassioned tweet.

"Ukraine requests the ethically and socially responsible global businesses to stop or suspend operations with or in Russia, therefore refusing to finance its violence, murders, and crimes against humanity,” Ukraine’s foreign minister asserted on Tuesday. 

He continued, that each day as Russia intensifies its assault on the Ukraine soil, the sovereign nation faces “an unprecedented escalation of the military aggression that has rapidly developed from occupying our land, hitting critical infrastructure to missile strikes and cluster bombings of peaceful residential blocks causing mass casualties of civilians, innocent men, women, and children, breaking all possible rules and principles of international and humanitarian law.”

'Immediately suspend operations in Russia': Dmytro Kuleba

Kuleba said in his appeal to global companies that they immediately suspend operations in Russia on moral and ethical grounds. Ukrainians, he said, are fighting to protect “Europe and the main principles of the global community —humanity, the rule of law and international order enshrined in the United Nations Charter.”

Ukraine’s foreign minister asked the global leaders in the government and private sector, international organisations, and multinational companies to resort to undertaking collaborative measures in order to weaken Russia’s economic and military edge. These resources, he alleged, are being used by Russia for threatening and blackmailing Ukrainians, asserted the Ukrainian official. In his demand, Kuleba asked the international firms to "join the ethically and socially responsible global businesses, which have already stopped or suspended operations with or in the Russian Federation, refusing to finance Russian violence, murders, and crimes against humanity with their taxes.”

He continued, "As soon as Ukraine wins this war, we will start renewing our infrastructure and economy, continuing the path of reforms to become a full-fledged member of the European Union.” The latter iterated that he invites these global companies to express solidarity with Ukraine, and join other multinational companies who have already publicly expressed their readiness to start or resume business in Ukraine. 

Several multinational firms have suspended trade and commerce in Moscow after the crippling West and EU sanctions. Just recently, BP and Shell, Europe's largest oil company, announced they were exiting the Russian state-controlled oil company and a Russian natural gas giant respectively. "We are shocked by the loss of life in Ukraine, which we deplore, resulting from a senseless act of military aggression," Ben van Beurden, Shell's chief executive, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil announced that it is ending Russia's oil and gas operations valued at more than $4 billion and halting all new investments. American firm Apple also stopped sales from its website in Russia. Apple CEO Tim Cook asked the company to stop device sales and to block app store access in Moscow. 

Dell Technologies, Ford, and Ericsson, the world's biggest container ship operators— AP Moller-Maersk A/S and Mediterranean Shipping Co have all scrapped trade arrangements with Russia over the full-fledged war on Ukraine. Luxury Autocar companies such as Volkswagen, BMW, and Porsche also said they would have to curtail production.