Chicago’s Ukrainians pressure corporations to exit Russian market

The Illinois Division of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) held a protest in Chicago on June 11 at the Consumer Goods Forum. Activists gathered in front of the Sheraton Grand Chicago Riverwalk hotel, where CEOs of international companies were meeting, urging these businesses to exit the Russian market.

Additionally, a branded car is driving through the streets of Chicago, displaying the names of companies that have not yet left the Russian market, a project initiated by the Ukrainian community.

The community focuses onus to the American company Mondelēz, which continues its operations in Russia. Mondelēz executives have openly declared that they are “morally indifferent” to their activities in Russia.

“We are here to protest against the companies doing business in Russia, paying taxes to Russia and Putin, to buy weapons, to buy missiles, tanks, to kill Ukrainian children, to rape Ukrainian women, to destroy Ukrainian towns and cities. They are helping the enemy,” said Marta Farion, UWC Vice President for North America and Vice President of the UCCA, at the protest.

“For those pessimists who want to say, ‘this changes nothing, we don’t need these actions,’ I will say that something needs to be done. When nothing is done, nothing will definitely change. If, when the time came to defend Ukraine, everyone said, ‘we won’t do this because we cannot stand against the ‘second army of the world’,’ there would be no Ukraine anymore. Everyone and everything possible must do something,” said Dr. Mariya Dmytriv-Kapeniak, M.D., President of the UCCA Illinois Division.