Ukraine Names Top 50 Western Brands Still in Russia: 'Funding Genocide'

Ukraine on Monday named 50 international companies that it claims continue to operate in Russia despite the war which Vladimir Putin began in February.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for a boycott of the companies, accusing them of "funding genocide" by maintaining operations in Russia, according to a tweet by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

"International companies which remain working in Russia are directly funding Russian war crimes and genocide of Ukrainians," Kuleba said. "I reiterate my call on their customers and partners to boycott these brands until they stop making blood profits and pull out of Russia."

Ukraine's foreign ministry shared a graphic titled "Top 50 Brands From Europe and North America That Continue to Operate in Russia as of November 2, 2022."

The image contains logos of companies including Nestle, P&G, Johnson & Johnson, Philips, Siemens, Bayer, Unilever, Danone, Kimberly-Clark, ING, UniCredit, Aegon, Merck, Lilly, Sanofi, Veolia, Cargill, ADM, Roche, Valeo, Schlumberger, Engie, Metro, Abbvie, Auchan, HSBC, Aviva, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca, among others.

However, a number of companies included in the graphic said they no longer maintain operations in Russia, including Engie, Aviva, Glencore, and Aegon.

Engie, a French multinational utility company, issued a statement weeks after the war began, condemning the conflict—adding that it "does not engage in any industrial activity in Russia" and that "no investment projects are underway on Russian territory."

Immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, a number of International companies announced they would no longer be operating in the country. More than 1,000 companies from around the world have disengaged to varying degrees from Russia since the war began.

The foreign ministry's graphic cites the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute 2022 as its source, and the top companies are elected based on their revenue according to their financial statements.

The Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute team of researchers is led by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale School of Management professor who is tracking the companies that have left Russia and the ones that are staying.

The team had, as of August, graded more than 1,300 companies on an A-to-F scale for completeness of withdrawal.

Sonnenfeld previously told Newsweek that professional service firms, Big Oil and Big Tech were among the quickest to react.

"We were taken aback that those were the three first movers, and oddly fashion, fragrances, consumer goods, casual dining, even advertising agencies—people who pride themselves on reading public sentiment—were surprisingly late to the game."

A spokesperson for Lilly told Newsweek that shortly after the war began, the company "acted swiftly to deliver humanitarian aid to people in Ukraine and to limit our operations."

James Darcy, vice president of communications for Airbus, told Newsweek that it has suspended deliveries and support services to Russian customers, as well as the supply of spare parts to the country, in line with the international sanctions currently in place.

A representative for ING said that after the invasion of Ukraine began, the company worked to "actively reduce" its "Russia-related exposure."

Kuleba has throughout the war accused Russia of committing genocide in Ukraine.

In an op-ed for The Hill in August, the foreign minister pointed to Russia's forced deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia, and to the Bucha massacre.

"All perpetrators of this genocide must be held accountable. Only then will we all be able to utter the sacred words 'never again' sincerely," he wrote.

Newsweek reached out to Russia's foreign ministry and the listed companies for comment.

Update 11/9/22, 11:07 AM: This story has been updated with additional information as well as comments from such companies as Lilly and Airbus.