Proxy Providers Stand with Ukraine
Oxylabs, IPRoyal, and Smartproxy stop serving customers in the Russian Federation whilst the war continues.
- Published: March 2, 2022
The war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine has caused unprecedented backlash against the aggressor, both from public organizations and businesses. Proxy providers too have roused to support Ukraine in its struggle to remain an independent nation.
Oxylabs, IPRoyal, and Smartproxy have all recently announced their decisions to stop serving clients in the Russian Federation. This should affect both new and existing customers. Oxylabs and Smartproxy went a step further, also shutting their services to Belarus.
Oxylabs and IPRoyal are both located in Lithuania – a country that borders Russia and maintains close relations with Ukraine. Lithuania has been very active in imposing and agitating for sanctions against the aggressive actions of its neighbour.
Oxylabs’ Statement
Oxylabs issued the following statement, announcing its decision and urging other providers to follow suit:
Oxylabs stands with Ukraine. 🇺🇦
Unprecedented and unjustifiable aggression from the Russian and Belarusian regimes has inflicted irreparable damage and immense harm to Ukraine and its people. Our commitment to justice and the highest ethical standards extends far beyond business operations.
We will refuse to provide proxies or data acquisition tools to any current or potential customers from Russia or Belarus. Furthermore, we urge all proxy and data acquisition solution providers to do the same: Zyte (formerly Scrapinghub), Smartproxy, Bright Data, GeoSurf (by BiScience), BlazingSEO and many others.
No support, financial or technical, should be provided to regimes which threaten the lives of others and disrupt global peace. Show your support and share these messages with your network and audience.
We also invite every individual and organization to donate to charities that provide aid to the people of Ukraine during these grim times.
IPRoyal’s Statement
The IPRoyal team issued the following statement on its Discord channel:
Since it opened its doors, IPRoyal has stood for equality. Our main objective is and always has been to offer online freedom and completely unrestricted access to the internet for every individual and business entity in the world.
As a global company, we understand the importance of raising our voices and using all available platforms to call for peace. Amid the latest developments and the ongoing aggression of Russian armed forces against Ukraine, IPRoyal has decided to shut down its services for clients residing in the Russian Federation.
We want to express our full support and solidarity with the people of Ukraine, their families, and every individual affected by this ongoing tragedy.
Smartproxy’s Statement
Smartproxy shared the news on Twitter:
Due to the war in Ukraine, we decided to suspend our proxy services for new and existing customers originating from Russia and Belarus for the foreseeable future.
Smartproxy stands with Ukraine during these difficult times and we urge you to do the same.
Slava Ukraini! 💙💛
