World's biggest shipping company suspends container shipments to and from Russia

• Maersk will pause Russian shipments in the wake of the country's invasion and Western sanctions.
• The suspension will apply to all goods except food, medical supplies and humanitarian equipment.

Global shipping giant Maersk announced that shipments to and from Russia will be suspended temporarily in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and escalating economic sanctions imposed by the West and other countries.

The suspension will apply to all goods except food, medical supplies, and humanitarian supplies equipment, according to the shipping giant.

"With the fluid circumstances of regular updates and adjustments to the sanctions list we see clear need to take some time to establish new and revise existing processes of accepting and handling bookings," Maersk told Insider in a statement.

A spokesperson told Insider that the suspension also applied to Ukraine given the escalating situation.

The shipping company added that "the stability and safety of our operations is already being directly and indirectly impacted by sanctions," which governments around the world have implemented since the Russian military's full-scale movement into Ukraine Thursday morning.

The move by the shipping leader will further hamper Russia's ability to send and receive goods, which has already been restricted by Western sanctions. The US, UK and EU, alongside other countries have tried to cut Russia off from participating in the global financial system by blocking certain Russian banks from the cross-border financial transaction platform, SWIFT. The US has also frozen $630 billion in foreign assets held by the Russian Central Bank.

On Monday, the UK government asked port operators to prevent all ships with ties to Russia from docking. On Saturday, French authorities also intercepted a Russian cargo ship in the English Channel after it was suspected to have ties to a Russian company targeted by sanctions, CNBC reported.

Maersk said on Tuesday that it had already begun to see the ripple effects of sanctions on the global supply chain.

"We start seeing the effect on global supply chain flows such as delays, detention of cargo by customs authorities across various transshipment hubs, unpredictable operational impacts," it said.

The shipping giant said on Monday that it was considering a "possible suspension of Maersk bookings to and from Russia."

Maersk's decision to move forward with the shipments pause is the latest from global companies which will stunt Russia's ability to participate in global trade. Shipping company Ocean Network Express (ONE) also said on Monday that it suspended shipping to and from Russia, Reuters reported.