British-Dutch Unilever, a leading consumer goods company, expressed its condemnation of the Russian war on Ukraine and announced that it would suspend its investments, exports and imports to Russia, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine, citing the announcement on the company's website.
"We continue to condemn the war in Ukraine as a brutal and senseless act by the Russian state. Our business operations in Ukraine have stopped and we are now fully focused on ensuring the safety of our Ukrainian employees (146 persons) and their families, including helping with their evacuation where necessary, and providing additional financial support," says the announcement on the company's website signed by Unilever CEO Alan Jope.
He added that the company suspended all imports and exports of its products to and from Russia and will stop media and advertising spending.
He added, "We will not invest any further capital into the country nor will we profit from our presence in Russia. We will continue to supply our everyday essential food and hygiene products made in Russia to people in the country. We will keep this under close review."
He finished by saying, "We join calls for an end to this war and hope that peace, human rights, and the international rule of law will prevail."
Several days ago, he informed that the company would donate 25 mil EUR of essential goods to the Ukrainians who suffered from the war, such as food, personal care items, and cosmetic products. Unilever also announced a global internal fundraising campaign. The company will match the amount raised by employees.
Unilever manufactures under the brands Lipton, Dove, Vaseline, Cif, Signal, Domestos, Rexona AXE, Chistaya liniya (Clean Line), Barkhatnye ruchki (Velvet hands), Inmarco and others.
In Ukraine, the company owns a tea factory in Hostomel in Kyiv region that was recently targeted by heavy fighting.
Among its Russian assets, the company has an ice-cream factory in Tula region, a tea, cosmetic and cleaning products factory in Saint-Petersbourg, a cosmetics factory in Yekaterinbourg and an ice-cream factory in Omsk.