JSWeb are acutely aware of the horrific, unlawful and unprovoked war Putin’s regime is orchestrating against the people of Ukraine. Our clients, partners and friends in Ukraine are facing the challenge of their life.
The city of Kyiv is a bustling, vibrant, progressive, IT-savvy city. Or it was.
The attacks orchestrated by Putin’s regime have left the city decimated. Residents are hiding in cellars or in the metro stations, anywhere they can hide from constant shelling. This attack is targeting 44 million people in Ukraine who think independently, who have their own progressive vision for their country, who have chosen democratically to be part of the European project.
Mariupol, the city of industry & enterprise, has 400,000 people trapped in bomb shelters, encircled by Putin’s army, with no power, no water, no food and no heating. Temperatures drop to -10 degrees at overnight.
As an Internet company we must do everything possible to support and connect people who believe in our values: Democracy, truth, freedom and peace. We have a social responsibility to do everything possible to support people facing war, destruction and starvation.
Please Donate What You Can
We have donated to the Red Cross and and we’re now matching the donation to Ukraine-Hilfe Berlin (Germany) and Save the Children (Romania). All three organisations are organising essential supplies, medical equipment, and children’s clothing to those on the ground in Ukraine and refugees.
We’ll continue to donate what we can to respective charities and we’re encouraging our clients to donate too. We are committed to doing our bit for our community, including providing services to hundreds of charity and humanitarian organisations. Please donate whatever you can to charities with a presence in/around Ukraine, like the Red Cross: https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-crisis-appeal
Pressure on Putin’s Regime
E-commerce businesses can play an important role by raising awareness of the Russian war in Ukraine. Businesses using ZenCart can stop new signups from Russia and disable logins for existing users by following this guide. Businesses using WooCommerce can use the Country Restrictions plugin (external link).
It’s also possible for any website owner to use the GeoIP module on their hosting service to deny access from specific countries. This would usually cause visitors to see a ‘Forbidden’ page but it can be configured to redirect visitors from specific countries to a different landing page on your website.
In all these cases, our web development team are available to advise and assist your business. Please contact our team.
Blocking access to your website and potentially ending a relationship with existing customers is a difficult business decision but the hope is that pressure on ordinary Russians will eventually lead to pressure on Putin to end the war and save lives.