The booming outsource tech sector from the Ukraine is at risk following the Russian invasion Thursday (Feb. 24), The Wall Street Journal reported.
As troops invaded the Eastern European country, internet outrages were widespread, according to the Georgia Institute of Technology, which monitors internet access.
Kerry Hallard, CEO of the Global Sourcing Association, a London-based trade group, revealed 80% of computers lacked internet access at one member’s business in Kharkiv.
The conflict will have massive repercussions because Ukraine is a huge IT delivery nation, Hallard said. The nation’s tech workers support the banking, insurance and other financial services operations, she added.
Ukraine’s IT industry has soared by 36% to $6.8 billion in export sales last year, up from $5 billion in 2020, according to the Kyiv-based IT Ukraine Association, which calls itself the largest national association of IT companies.
In addition, the association said the number of IT specialists reached 285,000 last year, up from 244,000. The industry has more than doubled in export and increased by more than 50% in the number of specialists during the last three years.
Katie Gove, an analyst at Gartner Inc., the Connecticut-based tech research and consulting company, told the WSJ that the Ukraine is packed with IT talent because of a strong academic tradition that emphasizes software engineering and application development skills.
The IT sector is not the only industry taking a hit as Russia occupies the Ukraine. The incursion triggered more than $242 million in liquidations in the crypto market.
Read more: Ukraine Conflict Leads to $242M Crypto Liquidation
Most of those liquidations — $72 million — were in Bitcoin-tracked futures, followed by ether futures at $70 million The liquidations were part of more than $411 million in liquidations seen over the last 24 hours.
Around 114,700 traders were liquidated, with the biggest single liquidation order happening on OKX, a LINK trade valued at more than $3 million.
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