PayPal suspends service in Russia citing 'violent military attack

According to a Reuters report, PayPal is suspending its services in Russia in response to the country's "violent military offensive in Ukraine". Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted a letter from PayPal CEO Dan Shulman, confirming the company's decision to shut down its operations in Russia.

"Under the current circumstances, we are suspending PayPal services in Russia," Shulman says in the letter. "We are doing everything we can to support our employees in this area during this difficult time."

As Reuters reported, PayPal was only available for cross-border payments in Russia. It stopped accepting new Russian users earlier this week, but has now made the broader decision to halt its services altogether - a measure that also includes the PayPal-owned money transfer service, Zoom. PayPal spokesman Aidan Kelly told The Verge that PayPal will still "continue to work for the time being to process customer withdrawals, ensuring account balances are compliant with applicable laws and regulations."

With financial restrictions imposed by the US, UK, EU and many others, some Russian users may not be able to use their bank cards to pay via PayPal. The sanctions have already cut some users off Apple Pay and Google Pay, as they target Russia's biggest financial institutions, preventing bank customers from paying with cards for businesses and services registered in sanctions countries. Huh.