U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs on Thursday announced it would pull out of Russia, becoming the first Wall Street institution to distance itself from Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine.

"Goldman Sachs is winding down its business in Russia in compliance with regulatory and licensing requirements," a spokeswoman for the company said. 

"We are

Facebook said Thursday that due to the invasion of Ukraine it has temporarily eased its rules regarding violent speech to allow statements like "death to Russian invaders," but not credible threats against civilians.

Moscow's internationally condemned invasion of its neighbor has provoked unprecedented sanctions from Western governments and

Western sanctions have driven Russia and its close ally Belarus "mighty close" to default, the World Bank warned Thursday. 

Sweeping sanctions imposed on the two countries over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine have left their economies in “square default territory,” the development organization's chief economist Carmen Reinhart told Reuters. 

“They're n