Ukraine’s government expressed outrage after Apple complied with Russia’s demand to show Crimea as part of its territory on its Maps and Weather app, a highly sensitive topic since Russia illegally annexed the region in 2014.
On Nov. 28, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Vadym Prystaiko wrote on Twitter that Apple “does not give a damn” about the country’s pain and added that the firm should stick to “high-tech and entertainment” as global politics is not the company’s strong suit.
When seen from the Russian version of the app, there is no border between Russia and Crimea, and the port of Sevastopol is shown as a separate region.
Moscow based reporters confirmed the changes in the Russian edition of the affected apps.
The move came after a representative from Apple met with the chairman of the Duma’s committee on security and anti-corruption, Vasily Piskaryov, on Nov. 27.
Piskaryov then said “there is no going back,” adding that “the situation is closed, we have received everything we wanted.” He claimed that “Apple has fulfilled its obligations and brought the programs on its devices in line with the requirements of Russian law.”
The move is the outcome of several months of talks between Apple and the State Duma.
Apple originally suggested showing Crimea as neither Russian nor Ukrainian, but labeling Crimea as part of Ukrainian territory is a criminal offense under Russian law.
Apple in Russia has not yet commented on the decision.
It is not the first tech giant to bow to Russia – Google also shows Crimea as belonging to neither Russia nor Ukraine on its maps, but nonetheless uses the Russian spellings of Crimean names.
In July 2016, Google changed the names of towns, villages, and districts in Russian-occupied Crimea to Ukrainian spellings on Google Maps in accordance with Ukraine’s decommunization law but changed them back the next day after a fuss from Russian officials.
Google promised to create two different versions of Google maps, one for Russia and one for Ukraine, and seen from the Ukrainian app, Crimea is still depicted as a disputed territory.
Since Crimea’s annexation, the peninsula has been administered as the de facto Crimean Federal District.
Ukraine still considers Crimea to be part of its territory.
