Denis Pushilin, the leader of the "Donetsk People's Republic" (DPR) announced on Friday that the breakaway Ukrainian region had decided to block Google for the security and safety of its people.

Pushilin called the search engine "a curator from the U.S. government (that) promotes terrorism and violence against all Russians, and especially the population of Donbas."

"If Google stops pursuing its criminal policy and returns to the mainstream of law, morality and common sense, there will be no obstacles to its work," he said in a Telegram post.

Google did not immediately respond to the announcement.