This week, Ukraine was hit hard as a vibrant hub of IT talent, along with its democracy.
PitchBook data shows that in the past year alone, more than 100 startups have set up offices for developer teams in Ukraine, and they are almost exclusively tech companies.
Other multinational companies have well-established DevOps and IT support teams in Ukraine: According to a 2021 national survey by the local technical association IT Ukraine, Ukraine's IT services sector exported $6.8 billion that year.
One company executive said that after the invasion of Ukraine, their entire DevOps team "pulled down their laptops and picked up guns" — needless to say, they didn't want to reveal the company's name, fearing that their team would be retaliated against the invasion.
From GitLab to Grammarly, from Lyft to Apple, many companies also have large workforces in Ukraine.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said he was "deeply concerned" about the "situation" in Ukraine and that "we are doing everything we can for our team on the ground and will support local humanitarian efforts." ”
The CEO of another large company said they have a development team in Ukraine: "We have a big group of employees [in a location] close to the border." Everyone said that Russian tanks could be seen rumbling past the window. They could not leave the city because one bridge was destroyed and another was laid to block traffic. ”
While the action was a little late, many were struggling to get out of the company – closed airspace and clogged and dangerous roads complicating the situation. Ceo Pari Natarajan, a global management consulting firm in India's Zinnov, urged companies to support teams on the ground and not to lose faith in the country.
"Ukraine's tech ecosystem is one of the best in the world," he wrote. Ukrainian entrepreneurs and engineers have helped create many world-class products and services and continue to play an important role in this regard. It's time for global tech leaders to stick to Ukraine's tech ecosystem instead of looking for hassle-free ways to move their jobs elsewhere. What Ukraine experienced could happen anywhere in the world. Ukraine's tech ecosystem has proven its ability to resist risks and will continue to behave in this way. ”
The action role-playing game New Vegas was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks. The team that developed the game's major revisions said on Twitter: "As the invasion of Ukraine unfolded, it was very clear to the development team that most of the game could not be done because many of our developers lived in conflict zones. Therefore, our development work will be suspended for a period of time until the conflict is resolved. ”
This is the official Twitter account of New Vegas' most well-known modified version of Fallout The Froniter.
NCR modification work is currently under development!
"We'll still be active in the background and on social media, but the safety and health of our team always comes first, and it's completely unfair to urge our developers to keep working while responding to a major crisis."
Many people are still continuing to work, which is awe-inspiring. One consultant specifically noted on Twitter: "For the past year or so, I have been working with a remote team of two developers in Ukraine. This morning's daily stop will be particularly impressive. Both sides heard explosions in the early hours of the morning. One party has no electricity, but keeps in touch through the phone..."
Andriy Dovzhenko, co-founder and managing partner of SMRK, a Ukrainian fund that specializes in investing in IT startups, said: "Some of the startups under our name have moved to parts of western Ukraine, but I know a lot of people stay in Kiev because we are not afraid of invasions. We will continue to support the startups we invest in to help ease emotions..."
Given the large number of game developers in Ukraine, the game industry is one of the industries that develop business continuity plans, and numerous game developers across Ukraine told the game site Polygon shortly before the Russian invasion that they intended to move their employees out of Ukraine. After the attack, Ukrainian game studio GSC Game World appealed to its fans around the world for support, while Polish game studio 11 bit studios (the developer of the "anti-war" game "This War of Mine") said that the profits for the next 7 days will be donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross.
Reuters reported that research firm Techcet estimates that from a deeper structural level of the technology industry, Ukraine is the big producer of neon, and this key material is used to make the key component of the chip: the laser. More than 90 percent of U.S. semiconductor-grade neon is supplied by Ukraine, which could complicate an otherwise overwhelmed chip supply chain.