Bars, liquor stores in US pull Russian vodka off shelves to protest attack on Ukraine

Liquor stores and bars in North America are pulling Russian vodka off their shelves — and in some cases, pouring it down the drain — in protest of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

In what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called “a declaration of war against the whole of Europe,” Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine on three fronts early Thursday, Feb. 24, “bombarding cities, towns and villages” as forces advanced toward the capital of Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that his military forces are protecting citizens in eastern Ukraine who want to rejoin Russia, BBC News reported. Zelenskyy and President Joe Biden have rejected those claims.

“President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” Biden said in a statement announcing sanctions against Russia, CNN reported.

To protest Russia’s aggression against the former Soviet Union republic, some liquor stores and bars are imposing their own sanctions.

“I think the whole world knows by now that Russia’s at war with Ukraine for no apparent reason,” Jamie Stratton, partner and director of Jacob Liquor Exchange in Wichita, Kansas told KIRO 7. “I guess this is our sanction.”

Jacob Liquor Exchange has removed all vodkas that are from Russia or have ties to Russia from its shelves, and the store plans to dedicate the space to Ukrainian vodka going forward, the outlet reported.

“If a customer requests these items, obviously we’re here to sell. That’s what we do,” Stratton told KSNW. “But I’m not going to put it on the shelves.”

A ski resort in Vermont that seemingly had similar ideas went down a different route — pouring the vodka down the drain.