McDonald’s on Thursday announced plans for a “gradual” partial reopening of restaurants in Ukraine, where operations have been closed since February due to the Russian invasion.
The U.S. burger chain will “reopen some restaurants in Kyiv and western Ukraine where other businesses have safely reopened,” Paul Pomroy, senior vice president of internationally operated markets, said in a note to employees.
Pomroy cited requests from the company’s Ukrainian employees after the restart to signal “a small but important sense of normality” in the beleaguered country.
McDonald’s suspended operations in Ukraine on February 24 following the Russian siege of the country.
The company has since continued to pay salaries to more than 10,000 employees, Pomroy said.
“Over the next few months we will begin working with suppliers to get the products into the restaurants, prepare the physical properties to serve customers, bring restaurant teams and staff back on-site, and implement improved procedures and protocols, to support the safety of our employees and customers,” said Pomroy.
The announcement was welcomed by Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who admitted in a message on Facebook that the actual reopening “will take a while”.
“But the main thing is that there is a political decision: Mac is back,” Kuleba said. “The return of a large American company is above all a signal for international business that it is possible to work in Ukraine despite the war.”
In May, McDonald’s announced it would sell its business in Russia to Russian businessman Alexander Govor after announcing a full withdrawal from the country.
McDonald’s business in Russia “is no longer sustainable and does not correspond to McDonald’s values,” the chain said at the time.
The action marked a reversal of the fast-food giant’s historic arrival in Moscow in January 1990, which was seen as symbolic of the end of the Cold War era.
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