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Selasa, 08 Maret 2022

McDonald's temporarily closes doors in Russia, while KFC and Coca-Cola still face boycott threats for not halting operations - Sky News

Fast-food giant McDonald's has said it will temporarily close all of its restaurants in Russia in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine.

The firm, along with several other global companies, has been facing threats of boycotts for failing to pull out of Russia in protest at the war.

McDonald's has said all 850 of its restaurants in the nation will close their doors - but it will continue to pay the 62,000 people who work for them there.

McDonald's owns 84% of its restaurants in Russia, and they contributed 9% of the company's revenue last year.

In a letter to employees, the company's president and CEO Chris Kempckinski said closing the outlets is the right thing to do because they cannot ignore the "needless human suffering in Ukraine".

Major technology firms like Apple, Microsoft and Samsung, and businesses including Visa, Paypal and Netflix have shuttered operations or cut ties with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

But several food and drink firms such as KFC, Burger King, Starbucks, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have been criticised for staying largely silent about the war and have been under increasing pressure from social media users and leading figures to pull their business from the country.

McDonald's was among those under pressure.

New York state's pension fund - a shareholder in Coca-Cola and PepsiCo - has urged them and others to consider their operations there.

Live updates on Ukraine war as Putin's forces 'deserting in some areas'

The letters from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli urged companies to review their businesses in Russia because they face "significant and growing legal, compliance, operational, human rights and personnel, and reputational risks".

Pausing or ending operations in Russia "would address various investment risks associated with the Russian market and play an important role in condemning Russia's role in fundamentally undermining the international order that is vital to a strong and healthy global economy," the letter said.

In the UK, Lord John Mann wrote on Twitter: "If McDonald's and Starbucks continue to sell in Russia then an international boycott of their products should be instigated."

Dragon's Den investor Deborah Meaden also spoke out on social media against Coca-Cola, urging people to stop drinking it.

Many of the companies coming under fire have hundreds of locations in Russia.

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo operate large bottling plants in the country.

Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported last week that Coca-Cola "continues its operations in Russia".

"All operational, production, and logistics facilities of Coca-Cola in Russia are working. We are fully responsible to partners, society, and thousands of our employees in Russia. Our top priority is the safety of our employees," it quoted the company as saying.

Coca-Cola announced last week it would be donating €1m (£829,700) to support the Red Cross in Ukraine and a further €550,000 (£456,000) to support refugees in neighbouring countries.

In a statement on Thursday on its website, Coca-Cola said everyone at the firm has been following the news from Ukraine "with heavy hearts" and the company will "continue to monitor the situation closely".

It continued: "Our focus is on our people and supporting humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine and the region. Our actions are coordinated with our bottling partner, Coca-Cola HBC. Together, our priority is the safety and wellbeing of our employees and their families. We remain in constant contact and are doing everything we can to support them and our communities."

KFC in August 2021 hailed the opening of its 1,000th restaurant there, and as of 31 December last year.

KFC and McDonald's had already temporarily closed their restaurants across Ukraine and have been helping to feed soldiers and civilians on the ground, according to a report by The Kyiv Independent last week. McDonald's is said to have donated food, water, vegetables and fruit to local authorities for distribution, while KFC reportedly opened its kitchens to prepare meals.

In a recent statement, Kevin Johnson, the president and chief executive officer of Starbucks, condemned "the unprovoked, unjust and horrific attacks on Ukraine by Russia", adding its 130 stores which he said "are wholly owned and operated by a licensed partner" remain open in Russia.

"I want to express deep care for the livelihoods of our 2,000 green apron partners in Russia," he said.

"In times like these, as a company and as partners, we strive to never be a bystander. Partners' perspectives continue to help inform the actions we will take."

He added: "We will donate any royalties we receive from our business operations in Russia to humanitarian relief efforts for Ukraine... The Starbucks Foundation has contributed $500,000 (£382,000) to World Central Kitchen and the Red Cross for humanitarian relief efforts for Ukraine."

Burger King owner, American-Canadian Restaurant Brands International, which has around 550 locations in Russia, expressed concern about the impact of the war on its business in its recent annual report: "The conflict between Russia and Ukraine could adversely impact economic conditions and demand for dining out as well as result in heightened economic sanctions from the US, Canada and other countries in a manner that may adversely affect us and our franchisee's restaurants located in Russia and Eastern Europe."

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Several Ukrainian supermarket chains including Novus have announced they would be boycotting Coca-Cola products.

In a Facebook post, Novus said: "Our supermarket chain no longer cooperates with the Coca-Cola company, which continues to operate in the territory of the aggressor."

In a statement on its website the Ukrainian Retailers Association also called on other groups to join the boycott.

"It is incomprehensible and surprising the position taken by some international companies, which, despite the sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union, decided to continue to operate their enterprises in the aggressor state," said chairman Andriy Zhuk.

Sky News has contacted KFC, PepsiCo and Burger King for comment.

Meanwhile, Unilever has suspended all imports and exports of its products into and out of Russia, and that it will not invest any further capital into the country.

The company condemned the war in Ukraine as "a brutal and senseless act by the Russian state".

It said it will continue to supply everyday essential food and hygiene products that are made in Russia to people there, but will keep that under review.

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2022-03-08 18:45:00Z
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Shell, BP Say They'll Quit Russian Oil in More Self-Sanctioning - Bloomberg

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2022-03-08 10:48:09Z
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Russia pounds Ukrainian cities as Moscow makes new offer on escape routes - Financial Times

Ukraine evacuated civilians from some of its hardest-hit urban areas on Tuesday but quickly paused the effort after a tentative ceasefire with Russian forces was broken by shelling.

After several failed attempts to allow civilians to escape frontline fighting in recent days, Russia and Ukraine finally halted hostilities for long enough to allow some residents to leave the embattled city of Sumy in the north-east of the country, and Irpin on the outskirts of the capital Kyiv.

But soon after the first group of packed buses left Sumy, the agreement to halt hostilities from 9am to 9pm failed as the agreed safe route came under what local Ukrainian authorities described as tank fire.

“Shooting began along the route of the green corridor, including audible tanks,” wrote Mykhailo Ananchenko, an assistant to Sumy’s mayor, in a Facebook post. He added that the departure of residents could resume if the ceasefire was properly enforced.

The limited evacuations came as Russia continued to pound Ukraine’s other frontline cities with missile and artillery fire. Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said a convoy of supplies had been shelled on its journey to the besieged port city of Mariupol, where she warned of an unfolding “humanitarian catastrophe”.

After almost two weeks of fierce fighting, Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has devastated cities, created 2mn refugees and shaken markets, fuelling concerns that a commodity crunch could hit the world economy.

Despite deteriorating conditions on the ground, Russia has repeatedly failed to enforce promises of a ceasefire, blaming Ukrainian violations. Ukrainian officials remained wary on Tuesday, fearing the latest offer may turn out to be what President Volodymyr Zelensky has called cynical “propaganda”.

Ukraine said that it had sent to Russia and the International Committee of the Red Cross proposed routes for humanitarian corridors from the besieged cities of Volnovakha and Mariupol in the south towards Zaporizhzhia, and from Kyiv and Kharkiv in the east towards western Ukraine.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians continue to flee Ukraine every day, with the UN estimating that 2mn people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries already. EU officials said they expected as many as 5mn refugees, in what is one of the biggest movements of people across Europe in half a century.

In a show of defiance, Zelensky praised Ukrainians for their “courage” and “dignity” in a night-time address shot while standing in front of the window of his office on Kyiv’s Bankova Street.

Map showing more than 2mn people have left Ukraine. Total arrivals from Ukraine between Feb 24 and Mar 8* 2022. The country taking the highest number of refugees is Poland, with more than 1.2mn alone.

Several Ukrainian towns and cities remain under siege conditions, with Mariupol hardest hit. Encircled by Russian forces for almost a week, the city is facing shortages of water, electricity, food and medicines, according to Ukrainian and UN aid officials. About 200,000 residents are trying to flee, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Moscow again said safe routes would be available on Tuesday allowing civilians to escape cities including Kharkiv, Kyiv, Sumy and Mariupol. But unlike Monday’s proposal for so-called humanitarian corridors, which offered Ukrainians passage out to either Russia or Belarus, Russian officials said they were willing to offer other routes if agreed with Ukraine.

Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday morning that Russian troops were continuing their offensive but that the pace of their advance had slowed significantly.

This echoed an earlier assessment by the US Pentagon that Russian troops had failed to make “any noteworthy progress” in seizing territory and so were relying more on long-range missile and artillery strikes on cities they had not yet reached.

US officials said Russian troops were continuing to advance in southern Ukraine, tightening their grip around Mariupol and moving closer to the port city of Odesa. Fierce fighting also continues around the southern city of Mykolaiv as Russia attempts to take control of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast.

But Russian forces were largely stymied in the north, where they are attempting to encircle Kyiv. “As they continue to get frustrated, they continue to rely more on what we would call long-range fires . . . missile strikes, long-range artillery into city centres that they aren’t in yet,” said John Kirby, Pentagon spokesman.

Some military analysts and western officials think Russia is replenishing supplies, attempting to address logistical problems and consolidating its positions around Kyiv before launching a concerted offensive.

Ukrainian and Russian delegations ended a third round of talks on Monday evening with no signs of significant progress. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine’s president, said there had been some “small positive developments” in discussions on exit routes for civilians.

But Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation to the talks, told Russian news agency Interfax they “were not easy”, “fell short of [Russia’s] expectations” and that it was “too soon to talk of something positive”.

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2022-03-08 14:44:47Z
1327426266

Senin, 07 Maret 2022

Oil prices soar as Western allies discuss Russian import ban - Financial Times

Ukraine poured scorn on Vladimir Putin’s proposal for so-called “humanitarian corridors” out of frontline cities on Monday, describing it as a cynical offer to evacuate civilians to Russia even as Moscow’s armed forces continued to bombard urban areas.

Several proposals for a ceasefire have failed to take hold since the weekend, highlighting the seemingly irreconcilable distance between Ukraine and Russia’s positions as they entered a fourth round of talks in Belarus on Monday.

Through 12 days of war, Russian forces have used heavy weapons to target civilian infrastructure in crowded cities, hitting schools, hospitals and residential buildings. Foreign defence analysts said that in offering to evacuate Ukrainian cities, Russia could be exploiting humanitarian issues to distract diplomatic partners as it has done in previous conflicts.

Civilian protests against Russian rule in cities such as Kherson have underlined the extraordinary challenges Russia faces in pacifying and occupying Ukraine’s main urban centres. Valery Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said: “No matter how many miles the enemy has advanced into our territory, he won’t be able to hold it”.

Russia claimed its offer of a ceasefire across Kharkiv, Kyiv, Sumy and Mariupol followed “a personal request” from French President Emmanuel Macron, a suggestion denied by Paris. Despite the offer, Ukrainian officials said bombing continued after the 10am ceasefire time.

Iryna Vereschchuk, Ukraine’s minister for reintegration, dismissed the Russian proposal, saying Ukrainians “will not be evacuated to Russia”. “We urge Russia to stop manipulating and abusing the trust of world leaders . . . and to open the routes we have identified,” she said in a briefing.

Residents also questioned the need for a corridor out of Kharkiv, one of the hardest hit cities in Ukraine, since it was not fully encircled and the road leading west to Poltava was still open. “Of those who are left in Kharkiv, no one is going to want to go to Russia,” said Andriy Kluchko, who lives in the city.

So far, more than 1.5mn Ukrainians have fled the country, with more than 1mn crossing the border into Poland. The refugee crisis is the fastest growing in Europe since 1945, according to the UN.

Over the weekend Russia had announced a temporary halt to shelling in the besieged port city of Mariupol, but the planned evacuation of civilians was suspended after multiple violations of the ceasefire. Residents of Mariupol, which is surrounded by Russian troops, have faced shortages of food, water, electricity and heating in freezing weather.

Solomiia Bobrovska, an MP for Ukraine’s opposition Holos party, dismissed the Russian humanitarian corridor idea as “bullshit” designed for Russian TV. “Nobody wants to evacuate to Russia and Belarus because they are killing Ukrainians,” she said.

In an unconfirmed sign of some diplomatic movement, Turkey on Monday announced that it was convening a meeting between the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia later this week, in what would be the highest level meeting since the start of the war.

Russia’s Sergei Lavrov, Ukraine’s Dmytro Kuleba and Mevlut Cavusoglu, Turkish foreign minister, will meet on Thursday in the southern Turkish city of Antalya on the sidelines of an international diplomatic forum.

“Both ministers specifically said they want me to join the meeting that will take place in Antalya. So we will conduct this as a trilateral meeting. We hope this meeting will serve as a turning point,” Cavusoglu said in televised remarks.

Russia’s economy is reeling from retaliatory sanctions that have increasingly isolated its economy and spurred a corporate boycott that this weekend was joined by payments giants Mastercard, Visa and American Express.

But Russia has continued to receive strong backing from China, which has bucked international calls to condemn Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, defended China’s “everlasting friendship” with Russia and criticised the US for trying to establish an “Indo-Pacific version of Nato”.

He reaffirmed an “unequivocal message to the world that China and Russia jointly oppose attempts to revive the cold war mindset”.

“No matter how precarious and challenging the international situation may be, China and Russia will maintain strategic focus and steadily advance our comprehensive strategic partnership co-ordination for a new era,” he said.

Shelling has continued at a high intensity since the weekend, according to Ukrainian and western officials, including along Ukraine’s southern coast, with attacks on Mykolaiv and the seaport of Olbia on the Bug estuary.

Russia, meanwhile, has continued to resupply its armoured forces positioned around Kharkiv and Kyiv, as it attempts to unblock the logistical problems that have hampered its offensive for days.

An intelligence update from the UK Ministry of Defence accused Russia of targeting Ukraine’s communication infrastructure to “reduce Ukrainian citizens’ access to reliable news and information”.

It said Russia reportedly struck a television tower in Kharkiv on Sunday, suspending broadcasting output.

Additional reporting by John Reed in Lviv

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2022-03-07 13:43:47Z
1281799890

Minggu, 06 Maret 2022

Ukraine invasion: Thousands held by police after anti-war protests across Russia - Sky News

Thousands of people have been detained after anti-war protests in Russia.

People defied strict Kremlin control and took to the streets of 53 Russian cities including Moscow and St Petersburg chanting "no to war!" and "shame on you!", according to videos posted on social media by opposition activists and bloggers.

Dozens of protesters in the city of Yekaterinburg east of the Urals mountains were shown being detained.

Ukraine invasion live: All the latest updates

One protester there was seen being beaten on the ground by police in riot gear. A mural in the city showing President Vladimir Putin was defaced.

Maria Kuznetsova, of the independent protest monitoring group OVD-Info said: "The screws are being fully tightened - essentially we are witnessing military censorship.

"We are seeing rather big protests today, even in Siberian cities where we only rarely saw such numbers of arrests."

Russia's interior ministry said 1,700 people had been detained in Moscow, 750 in St Petersburg and 1,061 in other cities.

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Russian authorities also continued to block independent news outlets in an effort to tighten control over what information the domestic audience sees about the invasion of Ukraine.

Others decided to halt their operations in Russia because of new repressive laws or refused to cover the invasion at all because of the pressure

Last week the BBC said it was suspending the work of its journalists in the country.

The last Russian protests with a similar number of arrests were in January 2021, when thousands demanded the release of opposition leader Alexei Navalny after he was arrested on returning from Germany where he had been recovering from a nerve agent poisoning.

Some Russian state-controlled media carried short reports about Sunday's protests but they did not feature high in news
bulletins.

Russia's RIA news agency said Manezhnaya Square in Moscow, adjoining the Kremlin, had been "liberated" by police, who had arrested some participants of an unsanctioned protest against the military operation in Ukraine.

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2022-03-06 22:56:52Z
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Ukraine invasion: Fresh attempt to evacuate Mariupol fails as both sides blame each other - Sky News

A second attempt at a civilian evacuation in Mariupol has collapsed with both sides accusing each other of failing to establish a secure corridor.

The Ukrainian military said pro-Russian forces had continued shelling the areas that were meant to be safe while their enemies say it was they who failed to observe the limited ceasefire.

It is reported only a few hundred people have managed to escape the besieged port city, while the city council had aimed to evacuate more than 200,000 people.

Ukraine invasion: Live updates

Many residents have been sleeping in bomb shelters to escape days of near-constant bombardment by encircling Russian forces that has cut off food, water, power and heating supplies, according to the authorities.

The operation to allow them to leave, which follows a thwarted bid on Saturday, had been due to get under way at midday, with buses taking people along a safe "green" corridor through Portovskoye, Rozovka and Zaporozhye.

Other key developments:

• Ukraine's leader urges Russians to protest and 'overcome evil' as Putin demands surrender
• Ukrainians count the human cost of the invasion
• 'Putin must fail' - PM's six-point plan for resolving crisis ahead of talks with world leaders
• Visa and Mastercard announce suspension of operations in Russia
• China warns US not to 'add fuel to the flames' as Russia continues attack

A safe corridor was also to be created out of the city of Volnovakha.

A previous attempt to set up a humanitarian corridor out of Mariupol was abandoned on Saturday with Ukraine accusing Russia of continuing to shell the area and Moscow claiming Ukrainian "nationalists" were not allowing civilians to leave the city.

The UK's Ministry of Defence later said Russia's offer of a ceasefire was likely a ploy to distract attention away from it resetting its forces for a renewed attack.

Mariupol mayor Vadym Boychenko said thousands of residents had gathered for safe passage out of the city on Saturday when shelling began and the evacuation was stopped.

The 44-year-old said: "They've been working methodically to make sure the city is blockaded.

"They will not even give us an opportunity to count the wounded and the killed because the shelling does not stop."

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Having come to office in 2015 hoping to modernise the city, he said: "We were creating the conditions for people to have a comfortable life and dream for the future. And now they're taking this future from us.

"Right now I feel like they're tearing away my heart and soul."

Capturing Mariupol could allow Russia to establish a land corridor to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.

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2022-03-06 12:33:45Z
1323979826

Sabtu, 05 Maret 2022

Ukraine latest news: Visa, Mastercard say they will pull out of Russia - BBC

Successive US presidents have struggled to get the measure of Vladimir Putin but now that Brussels and Berlin have joined the fray with such resolve, it's a different story, writes Nick Bryant, former BBC New York correspondent.

It is often tempting to look upon Vladimir Putin as the millennium bug in a human and deadly form.

The Russian president rose to power on 31 December 1999. In the 20 years since, Putin has been trying to engineer a different kind of global system malfunction, the destruction of the liberal international order.

Successive US presidents - from Bush, Obama to Trump - have played into his hands.

Now, Joe Biden has dedicated his presidency to defending democracy at home and abroad. Seeking to re-establish America's traditional post-war role as the leader of the free world, he has sought to mobilise the international community, offered military aid to Ukraine and adopted the toughest sanction regime ever targeted against Putin.

What's been striking since the Russian invasion started, however, has been the assertion of forceful presidential leadership from elsewhere.

In Brussels, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has been another commanding presence. This former German politician has been a driving force behind the decision, for the first time in EU history, to finance and purchase weapons for a nation under attack, a commitment that includes not just ammunition but fighter jets as well.

The biggest assault on a European state since World War II has stiffened European resolve. But so, too, it seems has the relative weakness of America.

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2022-03-06 01:52:22Z
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Selasa, 08 Maret 2022

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Sabtu, 05 Maret 2022