In a letter to the Ukrainian government, PayPal CEO Dan Shulman wrote, "Under the current circumstances, we are suspending PayPal services in Russia”, adding that the company "stands with the international community in condemning Russia's violent military aggression in Ukraine."
The letter was shared on Twitter by Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation Mykhailo Fedorov who thanked PayPal for its move: “So now it’s official: PayPal shuts down its services in Russia citing Ukraine aggression,” Fedorov tweeted Saturday. “Thank you @PayPal for your supporting!”
While PayPal discounted domestic services in Russia in 2020, this latest move relates to its remaining business in the country, such as send and receive functions and the ability to make international transfers via the payment processor’s Xoom remittances platform.
PayPal has said that Russian nationals were prevented from opening new accounts earlier this week.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced that people can send dogecoin as a donation — a cryptocurrency that initially began as a joke but has since been supported by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
“@dogecoin exceeded Russian ruble in value. We start to accept donations in meme coin. Now even meme can support our army and save lives from Russian invaders. $DOGE owners of the world, @elonmusk, @BillyM2k, let's do it. Official $DOGE wallet: DS76K9uJJzQjCFvAbpPGtFerp1qkJoeLwL,” Fedorav tweeted.
People can also donate to the Ukrainian government in Solana, other digital tokens based Solana, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Via Twitter, Fedorov announced that Gavin Wood, co-founder of blockchain platform Polkadot, sent $5 million worth of DOT cryptocurrency to Ukraine.
On Thursday, Russia captured its first major city in Ukraine after a week of conflict. Kherson, a regional capital with a population of around 300,000, is now under the control of President Putin’s forces.
