London: Google, Apple and other tech giants must switch off services helping the Russian military in Ukraine, according to an international expert group on sanctions set up by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Western firms, including Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple, continue to provide hardware, software and services that aid Russia’s military and government, a report from the Yermak-McFaul Group published on Thursday says.

It explains that most of the products and services created by leading technology companies fall outside the current sanctions regimes imposed on Russia by the West, leaving the firms to decide for themselves how to proceed.

And it calls on tech companies to “limit the damage their technology causes to the people of Ukraine, and the cost borne by... sanctioning nations in paying for the damage this technology allows on Ukrainian soil”.

The report from the group, co-chaired by Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office, and Michael McFaul, the former US ambassador to Russia, says devices such as smartphones, mobile operating systems, and cloud services are repurposed for “battlefield communications” and “real-time reconnaissance”.

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And it said tech companies should “disable” key services that assisted the Russian armed forces.

The group made similar claims about email, content sharing, and secure communications technologies. For example, it said, large social media platforms facilitated Russia’s ability to “spread disinformation outside Russia’s borders”.

The report recognised technology firms faced a fine balancing act, with several major companies such as Google and Microsoft also playing a leading role in helping Ukraine to protect itself from cyber threats.