On the Rocks: UK Supermarkets Remove Russian Vodka as Poles Rename Pierogis over Ukraine

British supermarkets are joining the virtue signalling effort during the invasion of Ukraine, announcing that they have removed Russian vodka from their shelves and renamed Chicken Kievs.

On Friday, the supermarket chains Co-Op and Morrisons, which collectively make up around 17 per cent of supermarket sales in the UK, said that they will no longer be selling Russian Standard vodka in response to the conflict in Ukraine.

“In response to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces and as a sign of solidarity with the people of Ukraine, we have taken the decision to remove from sale Russian-made vodka,” a Co-Op spokesman said per Sky News.

“It will not be stocked for the foreseeable future.”

They added: “Our members and customers will also be able to support the humanitarian response to help those displaced by the conflict by donating at our stores to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal.

“Our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine, and those in Russia who oppose this invasion.”

The trend of ditching vodka has been seen elsewhere across Europe and the United States, many of which virtue signalling protests focussed on Stolichnaya, which although it is owned in part by a Russian firm is actually produced in Latvia, which secured its freedom from the Soviet Union much like Ukraine.

Also in Britain, Chicken Kievs are being re-branded in several British supermarkets to represent the new way of spelling the capital of Ukraine, The Daily Telegraph reports.

The protests and cancellations have gone far beyond vodka, with seemingly all things Russian coming under attack throughout the West, including restaurants across Poland — which was formerly occupied by the Soviet Union — renaming Russian perogies as Ukrainian dumplings.

“We know that this is only a symbolic gesture, but it is also important in the face of this terrible tragedy of the Ukrainian nation. We ostentatiously cross the Russian word from the menu and enter Ukrainian,” a restaurateur from Zakopane told the Polish Press Agency.

Over the past week, Russian state media has been a big target for cancellation, with Big Tech platforms working on the behest of the European Union, such as Facebook and Google have begun censoring Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik News in Europe. RT will also be removed from millions of households in Britain after Sky TV decided to remove it from its platform.

Sports have also been a major sector to ban Russia, with the country facing bans from almost all international soccer tournaments, including the upcoming FIFA World Cup. The National Hockey League (NHL) has also announced that it will be cutting ties with Russia in response to the invasion.

Hollywood has joined in on the act as well, with Disney, Sony, and Warner Brothers all suspending theatrical releases of their films in Russia for the foreseeable future. Streaming giant Netflix, for its part, has suspended productions in Russia, including a mini-series adaptation of Anna Karenina, by famed pacifist Russian author Leo Tolstoy.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka