ISTANBUL

German multinational Siemens announced on Thursday it will exit the Russian market, joining hundreds of companies pulling out of the country due to its war on Ukraine.

"The company has started proceedings to wind down its industrial operations and all industrial business activities," Siemens said in a statement.

The corporation, which employs around 3,000 people in Russia, had already put all new business in international deliveries to Russia and Belarus on hold after the beginning of the war in February.

"The comprehensive international sanctions, as well as current and potential countermeasures, impact the company’s business activities in Russia, particularly rail service and maintenance," the readout said.

Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” to “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine. For Western countries, however, it is a war of aggression and they have imposed severe sanctions in response.

"This was not an easy decision, given our duty of care for our employees and long-standing customer relationships, in a market where we have been active for almost 170 years," said Roland Busch, CEO of Siemens.

"We are evaluating the impact on our people and we will continue to support them to the best of our abilities," he said, adding: "At the same time, we provide humanitarian assistance to our colleagues and the people of Ukraine and stand with the international community in calling for peace.”