Russians start feeling the heat of Ukraine war sanctions

MOSCOW (AP) — In the days since the West imposed sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, ordinary Russians are feeling the painful effects — from payment systems that won't operate and problems withdrawing cash to not being able to purchase certain items.

“Apple Pay hasn't been working since yesterday. It was impossible to pay with it anywhere — in a bus, in a cafe,” Moscow resident Tatyana Usmanova told The Associated Press. “Plus, in one supermarket they limited the amount of essential goods one person could buy.”

Apple announced that it would stopped selling its iPhone and other popular products in Russia along with limiting services like Apple Pay as part of a larger corporate backlash to protest the invasion.

Dozens of foreign and international companies have pulled their business out of Russia. Major car brands halted exports of their vehicles; Boeing and Airbus suspended supply of aircraft parts and service to Russian airlines; major Hollywood studios halted their film releases; and the list will likely keep growing.

That's on top of the United States and other Western nations hitting Russia with sanctions of unprecedented breadth and severity. They have thrown major Russian banks off the SWIFT international payment system, limited high tech exports to Russia and severely restricted Moscow’s use of its foreign currency reserves.

Russians in Moscow and other cities talked to The AP about how those moves have played out in their daily lives, pointing to problems with converting rubles into foreign currency, long lines at ATMs and certain bank cards failing them.

Irina Biryukova in Yaroslavl, in a city about 250 kilometers northeast of Moscow, said she could only deposit a limit amount of money into her bank account through the bank ATMs.

“The majority...