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Ukraine plans to urge about 50 additional tech companies in gaming, esports, internet infrastructure and other areas to take action against Russia, a top Ukrainian government tech official said on Wednesday, as the country has already sought support from about 50 companies since Russia’s special military operation began last week.
Software giant Oracle Corp responded within three hours on Wednesday to a tweet from Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation calling on it to stop doing business in Russia. Ukrainian deputy digital minister Alexander Bornyakov showed Oracle’s tweet on his phone during a video interview, which said the company had “already suspended all operations in the Russian Federation.” Moreover, EA Games also said on Wednesday it was removing Russian teams from FIFA soccer games. Bornyakov said he wanted to see Akamai Technologies Inc., which provides cybersecurity and content delivery tools to websites, take action. The company said on Tuesday it will stop serving any sanctioned customers, but none of its clients, which it said included Russian airline Aeroflot, were subject to U.S. sanctions imposed on February 22. In addition, the ministry also called on Google and Apple Inc. to shutter their mobile app stores in Russia, but Bornyakov said the companies were more likely to block downloads of select apps.
‘IT army’ targets Russia
An “IT army” of volunteers at home and abroad, partly organized by the digital ministry through the messaging app Telegram, has disrupted access to Russian government websites and contacted about 50 million Russian civilians through social media, phone and texts with information about the military operation, Bornyakov said. These online forces numbered more than 250,000 people who were carrying out their own ideas. “Its like crypto, it’s decentralized,” Bornyakov added. He expressed little concern about cyber attacks from Russia, saying their infrastructure was weak. In recent days, Facebook-owner Meta, Twitter and YouTube all said they had taken down influence operations and hacking efforts targeting Ukraine.
Efforts of NFT amid conflict
Ukraine also plans to sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a type of digital asset, to help with funds for the army, Bornyakov said. “We’re going to prepare a lot of cool Ukrainian-style images and 3D models. If you buy this NFT, all the donations are going to go to support the Ukrainian army and citizens.”
The Ukrainian government has already raised millions in cryptocurrency donations. Before Russia’s special military operation, the tech ministry had been focused on moving all government services online. Bornyakov said these efforts meant it was already working with tech companies like Apple and Microsoft on projects such as digital passports. The ministry was also in communication with venture funds to invest in Ukrainian startups and wanted major tech firms to open artificial intelligence and virtual reality research and development centers in Ukraine. However, that has changed with the military operation, as Bornyakov said, “Now, we have to switch to a completely different focus. And that’s actually very sad.” (With input from Reuters)