Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, says Twitter has decided to prevent Russians from creating new accounts amidst the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

“Twitter just made the decision to block Russians the opportunity to register new accounts in Russian Federation. Thanks for support! Waiting for Facebook and Instagram to join,” Mr Fedorov tweeted on Saturday. 

Mr Fedorov said he had asked the chief executives of Google, YouTube, Apple and Netflix to block or limit their Russian services in an effort to put pressure on Moscow’s leaders.

“I asked YouTube to block the Russian propaganda media, which call us Nazis and drug addicts, lie and promote war.

Asked Meta to block Facebook and Instagram. I asked Netflix to block the service in Russia,” Mr Fedorov said in a statement on Facebook.

On Friday, Mr Fedorov had posted an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, saying that he had contacted Mr Cook and asked to block sales of all its products and services to Russia. 

“I’ve contacted @tim_cook, Apple’s CEO, to block the Apple Store for citizens of the Russian Federation, and to support the package of US government sanctions! If you agree to have the president-killer, then you will have to be satisfied with the only available site Russia 24,” Mr Fedorov wrote in his tweet.

At the time of filing this report, Apple has not commented on the letter.

On Saturday morning, internet monitor NetBlocks recorded failed or heavily throttled connections across every major Russian telecom provider, including Rostelecom, MTS, Beeline, and MegaFon. 

“We’re aware that Twitter is being restricted for some people in Russia and are working to keep our service safe and accessible,” Twitter support handle said.

These efforts to mount pressure on global tech companies comes in the third day of invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces.

According to the country’s health minister, 198 Ukrainians have been killed in the fighting and more than 1,000 have been wounded.