Azur Lane, the mobile game where players collect anthropomorphized warships turned into cute girls has disabled commenting on Russian warships in-game.

Azur Lane has a feature where players can leave comments on their favorite characters which other players can see. In the midst of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

As a result (possibly of users utilizing the comments to spread political messages), Yostar has hidden all the comments on Russian warships and players are unable to make more at the time of writing.

Lol, #Yostar disabled Kronshtadt comments because of the impecable timing they had by releasing Russian-inspired ships the very same day Russia decided to be an aggressor.

I couldn’t make this up. 😆😆 #AzurLane pic.twitter.com/oCoFfIZANg

— Fernando (@FHTgames) February 25, 2022

What’s interesting to note is that Azur Lane is a game developed by Chinese companies Shanghai Manjuu and Xiamen Yongshi, and the global release version (i.e. the English version) is published by Shanghai Yostar.

So while some fans are considering this to be a “sanction” against Russia, it’s just as likely that it’s to protect Russia’s image depending on what the playerbase is saying.

China has been notoriously silent on matters of Ukraine and Russia, being one of the few Abstains in the UN when matters between the two countries have been brought to the table.

What do you think? Is blocking comments on warships-turned-girls considered a sanction against Russia? Or is Yostar Shanghai protecting Russia’s image? Let us know in the comments!