Good luck with your iPhone purchase in Moscow.
Apple banned the sale of all its products in Russia on Tuesday as more companies withdrew from the country.
Consumers who want to order products such as iPhones, iPads and Macs from Apple’s Russian website received a “Delivery: Not Currently Available” message late Tuesday.
Although Apple has no official stores in Russia, its devices are widely sold through third-party vendors. Apple told reporters that it “stopped all exports to our sales channel in the country” last week, which means that stores in Russian cities may soon be left without an iPhone.
Apple also said in a statement that it was banning Russian state-controlled news outlets RT and Sputnik from its app store in every country except Russia.
U.S. users who tried to download the RT app late Tuesday were told “this item is no longer available.”
In addition, Apple is removing traffic and “live incident” features from Apple Maps in Ukraine, which it says is a “safety and security measure for Ukrainian citizens” amid Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
This reflects a similar measure taken by Google over the weekend, when it disabled live traffic on Google Maps after the tool and was used to track the movements of Ukrainian and Russian troops, as well as civilians.
Other companies, including Nike and Volvo, withdrew their products from Russia after the country’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Apple’s move comes days after Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov wrote a personal letter to CEO Tim Cook urging the company to ban Russia from using Apple products and services – including the App Store.
“We are sure that such actions will motivate the youth and the active population of Russia to actively stop the shameful military aggression,” Fedorov wrote.
However, some analysts said that excluding Russians from the app store would make it very difficult for them to obtain accurate information about the war in Ukraine.
Other major technology companies have also taken steps they say will help protect Ukrainians from Russian invasion. The mother of Facebook Meta, YouTube and Twitter, owned by Goggle, has placed restrictions on Russian state media, including RT and Sputnik.
