Planet fuel price ranges jumped and stock values fell as Russian forces invaded its neighbor Ukraine on Thursday morning. But several huge U.S. firms have as substantially at stake as EPAM Systems Inc., a Newtown, Bucks County-primarily based software package business with technological personnel throughout the previous Soviet Union.

EPAM employs far more than 40,000 globally. That features 13,000 in Ukraine, EPAM’s main executive, Arkady Dobkin, advised traders last 7 days. EPAM has engineers and other specialists centered in a dozen Ukrainian towns, such as Kyiv, the funds, and Kharkiv, among the the cities bombed by Russian forces.

Shares of EPAM opened down 16% Thursday early morning, at $350, as photographs of Russian forces bombing Ukraine airports and metropolitan areas flashed close to the environment. But the stock recovered somewhat by day’s conclusion, closing down 8.6%, or $35.95, to $382.28.

Dobkin started the company in 1993, four a long time right after the Berlin Wall fell, and constructed it into a $1 billion-moreover (yearly profits) multinational enterprise by choosing engineers in previous Soviet republics to publish and update application for bargain-hunting Western firms. Dobkin also grew the corporation by a string of acquisitions.

The company’s stock had soared last year as EPAM was extra to the S&P 500 index, putting it into the retirement portfolios of tens of millions of U.S. investors. But EPAM has missing almost 50 percent its value given that December on fears of war and very likely Western sanctions versus Russia and its ally, Belarus, which on Thursday served as a foundation for assaults on Ukraine.

EPAM also employs community team in various Russian and Belarusan metropolitan areas, in Ukraine’s Western-aligned neighbors Poland and Bulgaria, and in the three Baltic republics, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, U.S allies that border Russian-controlled territory and are seeing Russia’s assault on Ukraine with alarm. More than 20 Pennsylvania Nationwide Guard troopers and airmen are scheduled to be in Lithuania upcoming week to conduct coaching, explained spokesman Capt. Travis Mueller, who is centered in Fort Indiantown Gap.

Just last Thursday, Dobkin, who was born in Belarus, had downplayed the effect of what he viewed as Russia’s possible steps in opposition to Ukraine at his company’s quarterly meeting contact with traders.

Asked by analyst Ramsey El-Assal of Barclays financial investment lender irrespective of whether EPAM’s operate would be disrupted by a Russian attack, Dobkin said there was fairly little disruption when Russia seized sections of Ukraine together that country’s eastern and southern borders in 2014, and he predicted a comparable outcome this time.

He famous that EPAM team now typically is effective at property and is not dependent on area telecom infrastructure. Even if methods are wrecked or disrupted, the get the job done can resume from other areas.

Some EPAM clients have been pretty worried about the prospect of war in Ukraine, but a bulk had been not, Dobkin claimed.

The organization has sought to grow to be much less reliant on Ukraine and its neighbors, specially in the past calendar year, Bryan Bergin, a inventory analyst at Cowan Inc., observed during the investor conference.

Dobkin mentioned EPAM has been growing most fast in Latin The usa and India, but acknowledged that Russia, Ukraine and Belarus continue to account for a lot more than fifty percent the company’s manufacturing.

EPAM has not built a statement about the Russian attack considering the fact that it started. Business officers didn’t return phone calls in search of comment on Thursday.