Employees work at website-designer firm Wix.com offices in Tel Aviv, Israel, July 4, 2016. Photo: Reuters / Baz Ratner.

i24 News – A number of firms in Israel’s tech sector are stopping their Russia operations amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, joining a growing list of companies from around the world that are exiting the state.

Last week, website builder Wix ceased its business activities in the country, citing the Kremlin’s “acts against free media and speech.”

“Wix supports freedom of speech of Russian citizens. So, the creation of free sites will remain open,” Wix CEO and co-founder Avishai Abrahami said on Twitter Monday.

Israel-based financial services firms Payoneer and Tipalti are additionally cutting their operations in Russia, along with the 3D printing company Stratasys.

In a statement, Tipalti said that the company “is obligated to work with sanctions screening systems to identify financial crimes and check classification lists before every transfer of payments on the company’s platform.”

“At this time, these systems do not enable the transfer of payments to Russia,” it added.

Payoneer explained that it “won’t accept any new customers, and after fulfilling its obligations toward its existing users in Russia, in line with its service agreements, services will also be halted for them.”

“We cannot, with a clear conscience, support an aggressive government that has disrupted decades of peace in Europe,” the firm said.

News of the operational shifts arrives as a number of major international businesses also announce their departures from Russia — most recently McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks.