Russia's invasion of Ukraine had a negative impact on various fields, including the technology sector. In Ukraine, there are hundreds of startups and representatives of major technology companies.
A director of a large technology company who did not want to be named for the safety of employees, said that they were in the process of evacuating all staff from Ukraine.
This is not an easy thing because public transportation in Ukraine is almost paralyzed and the airport is in chaos. Possibly, they will head to neighboring countries first, namely Hungary or Poland.
Startup Readdle in Ukraine which is engaged in productivity tools is quite well known and is based in the city of Odessa. Their spokesperson, Dennys Zhadanov, confirmed that there are currently various emergency situations that must be addressed.
"We made a business plan a while ago and are now executing it. All of Readdle's products and services are operational and there is no evacuation plan for our team yet," he said.
Dennys said Readdle has employees in various countries, but most of them are based in Ukraine. "Ukraine is home to engineers, designers and other technology professionals. I know many CEOs have decided to stay in Ukraine," he added.
The technology company MacPaw, which develops software for Macs, said that although their head office is in Ukraine, they announced that their service is based on Amazon Web Services, which is located outside of Ukraine, as well as its payment system.
"Nothing has changed. At this time, we remain strong, united and ready to defend Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity," MacPaw was quoted as saying by Tech Crunch.
As for Google has about 200 employees in Ukraine and it is not yet known what their plans are. Meanwhile, Uber decided to stop its services in Ukraine and asked drivers to stay at home.
Tech company TikTok also said it was trying to keep employees in Ukraine safe. "The safety of our community and employees is a top priority. We also take action against content that threatens the security of our platform, including removing inappropriate content and will continue to monitor it," said a TikTok spokesperson.