Apple today has started sending out emails to developers residing in Crimea informing them that their developer agreement has been terminated effective immediately. This means that developers in Crimea will not be able to sell or even publish apps on the App Store anymore.

The Cupertino company is citing the new trade sanctions announced by the US Government and the European commission as the reason behind the termination of the Registered Apple Developer Agreement (a.k.a the RAD agreement) with the developers. The notice also informs the developer to immediately stop using and destroy any Apple software that they might have received as a part of this agreement. Worse, Apple has also blocked their access to the developer portal.

Apparently, it is possible for developers to re-register for the RAD agreement using a Russia or a Ukraine based address, but there has been no confirmation about this from the company. Additionally, the email from Apple does not make it clear about the money that it has collected on behalf of the developers for the sale of their paid apps through the App Store but was yet to pay to them.

It was only last month that Apple had to temporarily take down its online store in Russia because of the wildly fluctuating value of the ruble.

[Via Techcrunch