The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) has added the French corporation Auchan to the list of international sponsors of the war, the NAPC reports on Telegram.
The reason was that during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the company refused to boycott the terrorist state and did not close its business in Russia.
Investigative reports by The Insider, Le Monde, and Bellingcat revealed that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian subsidiary of the French Auchan has been supplying goods to the Russian military in the occupied Ukrainian territories. The company supplied these goods under the guise of "humanitarian aid" and also assisted the mobilization activities in the Russian Federation.
"For Auchan, Russia is the second most important market after France. In 2020 alone, the Russian Auchan paid $167 million to the Russian budget. According to journalists, this is equal to the cost of 15 Su-25 aircraft, 42 tanks, 222 Kalibr missiles, or 477 thousand AK-74 rifles. We cannot allow Russia to continue to receive these funds, which it then uses to kill Ukrainians. We want companies to be ashamed of cooperating with murderers. The reputation institute must work, so we have added Auchan to the list of international sponsors of the war," said NAPC Chairman Oleksandr Novikov.
In response to Volodymyr Zelenskyy's call to stop working in Russia, Auchan Retail International CEO Yves Claude said that the company does not intend to leave the Russian market, for it wants to retain employees and continue to feed Russians.