Apple kicked Russia's biggest social media platform off the App Store

• Apple removed VK, Russia's biggest social media platform, from the App Store.
• Apple said this was in response to new UK sanctions.

Apple has removed VK, Russia's biggest social media app, from its App Store, as first reported by The Verge.

Major Western social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram were blocked by the Russian government at the onset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Adam Blacker, director of content at app analytics firm Apptopia, told Insider VK has been downloaded 211 million times since 2015 across both Apple and Google's app stores, compared to roughly 52 million downloads for Facebook.

VK released a Russian-language statement Tuesday saying its apps were no longer available to download or update on the App Store, but that the apps were still operating for users who'd already downloaded them.

Apple confirmed to Insider it had removed VK's apps from the App Store, but that the apps will continue to function for people who had already downloaded them – although it warned users there could be problems with notifications and payments.

It said this was because VK is majority-owned or majority-controlled by parties sanctioned by the UK government.

As noted by The Verge the UK government brought in 92 new sanctions on Russian entities on Monday in response to what it called "sham referendums" held by Russia in parts of occupied Ukraine.

This included sanctions against 23 people from the board of directors and management board of Gazprombank, which owns a large stake in VK.

The CEO of VK Vladimir Kiriyenko was sanctioned by the US government in February.

It's not clear whether Google will bring in similar restrictions on VK in its own app store. As of Wednesday, it was still available to download in the Google Play Store.

VK and Google did not immediately respond when contacted by Insider for comment.