Kroger pulls Russian-produced vodka from its shelves
This is a display of Russian Standard Vodka in a Total Wine and More store in University Park, Fla., on Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
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(NEXSTAR) – National grocery chain Kroger has pulled Russian-produced vodka from its shelves in support of Ukraine. Throughout the country, many others have already done the same, and some governors have even taken action in their states to remove vodka from liquor stores.
Russian-produced vodka was removed from shelves over the weekend, Kroger said Tuesday. The chain has nearly 2,800 stores in 35 states.
“As America’s grocer, we’re taking action to show our support and solidarity with Ukraine,” Kroger said in the statement. The company is also sending emergency food assistance to support the 677,000 refugees forced out of Ukraine.
Nexstar has reached out to Kroger for additional details but did not immediately receive a response Tuesday.
Total Wine & More, a national chain of liquor stores, also removed all Russian-made products from its shelves.
“Today, this is what you will see in our stores,” the company wrote on Facebook Monday, captioning a photo of bare shelves with a posted message, “We are no longer selling any Russian-made Product.”
Liquor stores throughout the U.S. and Canada have been refusing to sell Russian-made vodka since Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday.
Various bars have not only pulled Russian-made products, but they’ve also begun promoting Ukrainian brands instead.
Governors from numerous states, including Utah, Texas, Virginia, and Ohio, have either ordered or called for Russian-made products to remove Russian-sourced brands from stores shelves. Others have gone so far as to direct officials to cut ties with Russian entities.
Russian forces shelled Ukraine’s second-largest city on Monday, rocking a residential neighborhood, and closed in on the capital, Kyiv, in a 40-mile convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles, as talks aimed at stopping the fighting yielded only an agreement to keep talking.
The country’s embattled president said the stepped-up shelling was aimed at forcing him into concessions.
“I believe Russia is trying to put pressure (on Ukraine) with this simple method,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Monday in a video address. He did not offer details of the hourslong talks that took place earlier, but said that Kyiv was not prepared to make concessions “when one side is hitting each other with rocket artillery.”