Sainsbury’s becomes first supermarket to rename chicken kiev to kyiv


Sainsbury’s has become the first UK supermarket to change the name of its chicken kiev to chicken kyiv in support of Ukraine.

In an announcement on Friday, the retailer said the new packaging will be rolled out across its stores in the coming weeks.

The news comes in response to a social media campaign which had called on major grocers including Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer to change the name of the popular chicken dish.

Kyiv, the name of Ukraine’s capital city, is a spelling derived from the Ukrainian language name Київ, while Kiev is from the Russian language name Киев.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration has estimated that a total of 1.25 million people have fled Ukraine since 24 February when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of the country.

Sainsbury’s said it has also removed all products that are “100 per cent sourced from Russia” from its shelves.

“We stand united with the people of Ukraine. We have reviewed our product range and have decided to remove from sale all products that are 100 per cent sourced from Russia,” a statement said.

“This means that from today we will no longer sell two products – Russian Standard vodka and Karpayskiye black sunflower seeds.”

Additionally, the supermarket has donated £2 million to Comic Relief to support Ukrainians affected by the war.

Dozens of other companies have either suspended trading in Russia or announced they will no longer sell Russian products since the start of the war.

Russian Standard Vodka, which is distilled in St Petersburg, has also been removed from shelves in Co-op Food stores and Morrisons.

On Thursday, Marks & Spencer said it has suspended shipments to its stores in Russia, which are operated by Turkish franchise partners, “given the unfolding humanitarian crisis” in Ukraine.

However, a spokesperson for the retailer told the Independent that it would not be changing the name of its chicken kievs.

“Marks & Spencer will always use the Kyiv spelling whenever and wherever we are talking about the Ukrainian city,” a spokesperson said.

“‘Chicken kiev’ has been in use for over 100 years and has been recognised by our customers since M&S brought the product to the high street in the 1970s.”

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.



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