Prystaiko and the Ukrainian embassy in Washington asserted in a tweet directed at Apple that the area is under Russian occupation and its sovereignty hasn’t changed. The minister tried to present the situation in terms of how Apple might react if in a parallel situation.
Read also: Russia dismisses US Crimea declaration
“Imagine you’re crying out that your design & ideas, years of work & piece of your heart are stolen by your worst enemy but then smb ignorant doesn’t give a damn about your pain,” he tweeted. “That’s how it feels when you call #Crimea a (Russian flag) land.”
IPhones are great products. Seriously, though, @Apple, please, please, stick to high-tech and entertainment. Global politics is not your strong side. #CrimeaIsUkraine
— Vadym Prystaiko (@VPrystaiko) November 27, 2019
Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment. The BBC and other news organizations earlier reported that Crimea, a peninsula in the Black Sea that was annexed by Russia in 2014, was shown as being part of Russia on Russian versions of the Apple map software used on the iPhone and iPad.
The more widely used Google Maps from Alphabet Inc.’s Google, uses a dotted line to show the boundary between Ukraine and Crimea to its south, more tentatively placing the latter area inside Russia, in versions seen from the U.S. Google Maps uses dotted lines when national boundaries are unclear or disputed.
