Ukraine calls upon gaming and esports companies to cut ties with Russia

A leader in the Ukrainian government has called upon all gaming and esports companies to stop serving Russian gamers and competitors.

The basics: Meeting gaming companies halfway, a member of the nation's government addressed gaming companies via Twitter.

• Mykhailo Fedorov, the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and the country's Minister of Digital Transformation, published a letter on Twitter while tagging Microsoft and Sony. He also addressed the likes of Riot Games, EA, and Ubisoft in a follow-up tweet.
• Fedorov requested for all game development companies and esports platforms to "temporarily stop the participation of Russian and Belorussian teams and gamers in all international esports events," and also to not hold any events in the two nations.
• Explaining the reasoning behind the request, the Vice Prime Minister stated that "such actions will motivate the citizens of Russia to proactively stop the disgraceful military aggression," referring to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The current landscape: Esports companies have already been acting against Russia.

• Ukrainian tournament organizer WePlay made it clear in late February that it would no longer work with companies from Belarus and Russia.
• Natus Vincere, an esports organization from Ukraine, announced on March 1 that it would no longer work with Russian esports holding company ESforce's properties.
• Tournament organizers BLAST and Elisa Esports have both banned Russian-owned organizations from competing in their events for the foreseeable future.