Two directors of Huawei Technologies Co.’s British subsidiary have resigned after the telecommunications giant declined to directly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Andrew Cahn and Ken Olisa notified the company on Wednesday that they planned to step down as non-executive directors. The men had urged Huawei to issue a public statement condemning the invasion and found the situation untenable when Huawei declined to do so, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Shenzhen-based telecoms equipment maker has traditionally not commented on political matters, the person said. “Sir Andrew Cahn and Sir Ken Olisa brought considerable experience from the world of business and technology to Huawei UK’s board of directors,” Huawei said. “Both have shown strong support for Huawei’s commitment to the UK and have helped uphold the highest standards of corporate governance and we thank them for their invaluable guidance.” Their resignations were reported earlier on Wednesday by Sky News. Cahn, the former head of the United Kingdom Trade & Investment agency, joined the board of Huawei’s British subsidiary in 2015, while Olisa, a businessman and philanthropist, joined as a director in 2018. Olisa, who is also the Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London, is the first British-born black man to serve as a director of a FTSE 100 company. Cahn and Olisa could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday. The UK subsidiary’s board is separate from Huawei’s group board of directors. Their resignations come as a number of Western companies, including Apple, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Starbucks, have closed stores and stopped sales temporarily in Russia in recent days over the invasion. Western governments also have unleashed a slew of sanctions on Russian businesses and individuals, including freezing the personal assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. On Tuesday, the US banned the import of Russian oil and natural gas, while Britain said it would stop Russian oil imports by year’s end. The European Union, which is more reliant on Russian oil, said it would cut its purchases of Russian gas by two-thirds by the end of the year as part of a strategy to end its reliance on Russia oil by 2030. Robert Lewandowski, the Polish professional footballer and Bayern Munich star, ended his marketing sponsorship with Huawei last week, reportedly over the Ukraine situation. Huawei has previously had some of its UK directors depart over geopolitical matters. For example, John Browne, the former chief executive of BP, left in 2020 as American and British authorities moved to exclude Huawei equipment from their 5G mobile networks because of national security concerns. All Huawei equipment is supposed to be removed from British next-generation mobile networks by 2027.