Russia Ukraine Crisis: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left the country’s tech industry in a lurch. While the situation on the ground in Ukraine continues to change rapidly, a number of Ukraine-based tech startups have had to enact emergency measures, while multi-national tech companies with offices in the country are also resorting to contingencies.
According to a report by TechCrunch, many companies are in the process of figuring out how to evacuate staff from Ukraine, now that the country’s airspace has been shut down, and public transportation is out of order.
Ukraine-based startup Readdle, headquartered in Odessa, make productivity tools. The company’s spokesperson and managing director, Denys Zhadanov told TechCrunch that Readdle made business continuity plans a while ago, and are executing them now.
Although Readdle now employs people in 11 countries, Zhadanov said that the Ukraine-based team is not being evacuated at this point.
Software developer MacPaw, which makes a suite of popular apps for the Apple’s Macs, have said in a blog post that nothing is going to change for their users. The blog post also asks users to support Ukraine in defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Uber has been operational in Ukraine since 2016, but has currently paused operations in the country. The company has offered employees and their immediate families relocation to other countries. Drivers and riders have been advised to stay home. Uber told TechCrunch that it will restore service as soon as it is safe to do so.
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Fellow ride-sharing app Lyft has also committed to offer financial support for emergency preparedness and relocation to employees.
TikTok told TechCrunch that safety of their community and employees is paramount, and that the company will work to remove misinformation on its platform.
Facebook’s head of security policy Nathaniel Glechier has tweeted about the crisis, saying that the company has established a Special Operations Center to closely monitor the situation, and act as fast as possible. The company now allows users in Ukraine to lock their account, similar to features they deployed in Afghanistan in August.
Web host Cloudflare has confirmed that the company has removed all customer cryptographic material from servers in Ukraine, to protect customer data and communications if their data centre is compromised.