A man walks past an SAP logo during the company’s annual general meeting in Mannheim, Germany May 15, 2019. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

FRANKFURT, March 24 (Reuters) – German enterprise software giant SAP (SAPG.DE) said on Thursday it would close its cloud operations in Russia, pulling out further from the country after halting sales in Russia at the start of the month.

“Russia’s ongoing unwarranted war is a heartbreaking display of brutality and a violation of the fundamental principle of freedom we share with Ukraine,” the company said on its website.

He added that the move would not prevent all customers in Russia from using its products, as some organizations run installed software that they may be able to manage on their own.

The withdrawal marks a change in direction as chief executive Christian Klein last week, in a newspaper interview, defended SAP’s decision to continue providing services to certain industries in Russia such as energy, healthcare and trade that have not been directly affected by the sanctions.

The move follows a call by Ukraine earlier this month for cloud computing and software giants including Microsoft (MSFT.O) and SAP to cut off Russia to stop the invasion of Moscow.

IDC analyst Philip Carter said Russian companies were largely reluctant to rely entirely on cloud services for their information technology, potentially limiting the blow from SAP’s decision. Read more

SAP added on Thursday that it provides its technology to multinational humanitarian aid organizations in Ukraine.

Separately, German telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) said on Twitter that it was closing its operations in Russia, which mainly consist of a software development center in Saint Petersburg which is in the process of closing its doors. .

Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Nadine Schimroszik

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