Sainsbury’s is changing the name of its chicken kiev to chicken kyiv and is joining Waitrose, Aldi and Morrisons in withdrawing a Russian-made vodka from the shelves in the latest action by British retailers to signal solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
The UK’s second biggest supermarket said the packaging for the poultry dish would change in the next few weeks, switching the Soviet-era name for the country’s capital for the Ukrainian version.
The move comes after several smaller operators announced a switch to chicken kyiv, including the Better Naked brand and Essex-based Our Local Butcher. Marks & Spencer, which popularised the dish in the UK after making chicken kiev one of the first ready meals in 1979, has also come under pressure to rename the dish.
A number of companies have pulled their operations and services in Russia since its invasion of Ukraine. These include:
Retailers
- Ikea has temporarily closed all stores and factories in Russia, affecting 15,000 workers. It has shuttered its 17 outlets across Russia but said it would keep its Mega shopping centres open.
- H&M has temporarily suspended all sales in Russia. The firm said that shops in Ukraine had already been closed temporarily “due to the safety of customers and colleagues”.
- JD Sports has ceased all trading in Russia across both its brand websites and wholesale channels, adding that it represented less than 0.05% of annual revenues.
- Mango, the Spanish clothing retailer, said it was temporarily closing its shops and its online sale website in Russia, while it is monitoring “with sadness and concern” the situation in Ukraine.
- Nike has said it is stopping Russian customers from buying online.
- Adidas has suspended its partnership with the Russian Football Union.
- Marks & Spencer has suspended shipments to its Turkish franchisee’s Russian business. Operation ceased last week at its 10 stores in Ukraine, which employs 250 people. It has 48 stores in Russia and 1,200 employees, also via the franchisee.
- Boohoo has halted sales in Russia and closed its Russian trading websites.
- Asos has suspended sales in Russia. It said it was “neither practical nor right to continue to trade in Russia”.
Travel
- Airbnb has suspended all operations in Russia and Belarus. It has also taking bookings from people in both countries.
- Expedia has stopped selling travel in and out of Russia.
Carmakers
- Volkswagen has stopped production of vehicles in Russia “until further notice”. Vehicle exports to Russia have also been stopped "with immediate effect”, it said.
- Toyota halted production at its St Petersburg plant and vehicle imports into the country have also stopped indefinitely.
- General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover and Renault have halted sales and operations in Russia. Mercedes-Benz said it will stop selling cars and vans to Russia, as has Aston Martin. Harley-Davidson has halted motorcycle shipments to Russia.
Drinks industry
- Diageo, the maker of Smirnoff vodka and Guinness has paused exports to Russia and Ukraine.
- Coca-Cola HBC has halted production at its bottling factory in Kyiv and evacuated its employees.
Tech, media and entertainment
- Apple has paused sales in Russia.
- Meta, owner of Facebook, said it had stopped recommending content from Russian state media to all users of Facebook, with Instagram to follow.
- Google has suspended all advertising in Russia after the country’s internet regulator demanded the company stop showing what it considered were adverts displaying false information about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Walt Disney Company is pausing its release of films in Russia.
- Netflix said it has no plans to distribute news, sports and entertainment channels from Russian state media.
Luxury goods companies
- Burberry has halted all shipments of luxury goods to Russia “due to operational challenges".
Manufacturing
- JCB, the British construction equipment maker, said it had paused all operations, including the export of machine and spare parts in the country.
A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s said: “We stand united with the people of Ukraine. We have reviewed our product range and have decided to remove from sale all products that are 100% sourced from Russia.
“This means that from today we will no longer sell two products – Russian Standard vodka and Karpayskiye black sunflower seeds.”
Sainsbury’s said it had also reviewed JJ Whitley products, a range of vodkas and other spirits made in Russia. It said those would continue to be sold in its supermarkets as the drinks company had said it was moving all production to Chorley in Lancashire by the end of this month.
Waitrose said on Friday it would be removing one Russian vodka, while its sister department store chain, John Lewis, will remove a line of pizza oven pellets that are sourced from Russia.
Aldi said it would remove Russian vodka on Friday after the Co-op and Morrisons did the same earlier in the week.
Carmen Bryan, consumer analyst at GlobalData, said: “Governments have been implementing sanctions, however, it is interesting to see similar moves from the wider public and independent businesses.
“GlobalData’s survey reveals that brand loyalty is heavily influenced by alignment to one’s values. This puts Russian vodka brands in a precarious position, as prolonged conflict will not only damage immediate sales, but may also cause permanent disillusionment against Russian commodities in the long-term.”
The removal of Russian vodka from supermarket shelves comes after M&S suspended shipments to its franchisee’s business in Russia on Thursday.
It joined a rush of western firms halting operations in Russia, including Swedish furnishing retailer Ikea, which announced that it had temporarily closed all stores and factories across the country in a move affecting 15,000 workers.
On Friday, JD Sports, which sells to Russia via its website, said it was joining British online retailers Boohoo and Asos in suspending sales in the country.
