Sainsbury’s is removing all Russian-origin products from its shelves, including vodka

The supermarket giant is the latest retailer to sever ties with Russia as the war in Ukraine continues to claim thousands of lives. It is followed by Marks & Spencer, Visa, Mastercard and more

Sainsbury’s has announced that it will remove all 100% Russian products from its shelves.

As of today (March 4), the supermarket no longer sells Russian Standard vodka or Karpayskiye black sunflower seeds.

Morrisons and Co-op also pulled Russian Standard vodka from their shelves.

It comes after dozens of big-name companies announced they were cutting ties with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

Some of the companies cutting ties include Wetherspoon, Apple, Ikea and Disney, while energy companies such as Shell, BP and British Gas are also ending deals.

Sainsbury’s is also the first Big Four grocer to announce it will change the name of its Chicken Kievs to Chicken Kyiv in solidarity with Ukraine.

Supermarket shoppers had urged the UK’s major food suppliers to change the name, in line with the traditional way Ukrainians pronounce the capital, Kyiv.

“Kyiv” derives from the Ukrainian language name, with many media organizations now using this pronunciation since the Ukraine war broke out last week.

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A Sainsbury’s spokesman said: “We stand united with the people of Ukraine. We reviewed our product range and decided to withdraw all 100% Russian products from sale.

“This means that from today we will stop selling two products – vodka Russian Standard and black sunflower seeds from Karpayskiye.”

They added: “We are also renaming “Chicken Kiev” to “Chicken Kyiv” and the new packaging will be available in the coming weeks.

“To support the humanitarian crisis, as announced earlier this week, we are donating £2million to our long-term partner Comic Relief.”

Sainsbury’s said it had also “reviewed” all JJ Whitley products currently made in Russia.

The supermarket confirmed it will continue to sell JJ Whitley after the drinks giant confirmed it would be moving all of its production to the UK.

The Mirror has contacted Tesco, Asda and Morrisons, as well as Aldi and Lidl, to see if they drop Russian products or change the name of their chicken jaws.

Waitrose and Marks and Spencer have responded to reports that they have no plans to change their Kievers.

Since the conflict began a week ago, more than a million people have fled Ukraine and thousands of civilians are said to have been killed.

Russian forces have so far taken control of Kherson in the south, the first major city to fall, while the capital, Kyiv, remains under state control.

In addition to companies refusing to stock Russian products, both Visa and MasterCard have banned a number of Russian financial institutions from their networks.

The move comes in line with US sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

Visa and MasterCard together process 90% of all debit and credit card payments outside of China.