(NAFB) – In a statement this week, Bayer says it is supporting colleagues impacted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The company is prioritizing the safety of 700 colleagues in Ukraine and will continue to provide them and their families with financial aid, shelter, and evacuation assistance. Bayer is stopping all non-essential business in Russia and Belarus, while ensuring continued access to health and agriculture products. This includes suspending all advertising and other promotional activities, halting capital investment projects indefinitely, and not pursuing any new business opportunities. However, for essential health and agriculture products, Bayer says, “As a Life Science company, we have an ethical obligation – in every country we operate in.” Withholding essential health and agriculture products from the civilian populations – like cancer or cardiovascular treatments, health products for pregnant women and children, as well as seeds to grow food – would only multiply the war’s ongoing toll on human life, according to Bayer.