Ukraine has called for a global boycott of a French retail group that employs 77,500 people in Russia after one of its bosses said it would be “unimaginable” to halt its business in the country.
Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said the Mulliez group, which owns the retailer Auchan, the DIY company Leroy Merlin and the sports goods seller Decathlon, must pull out of Russia, where it is the largest foreign employer.
He was reacting to a refusal by Auchan’s chief executive, Yves Claude, to comply with an appeal from President Zelensky to stop its operations in Russia, comprising 300 stores with 41,000 staff.
“Apparently the job losses in Russia are more important than the loss of lives in Ukraine,” Kuleba tweeted. “If Auchan ignores the 139 Ukrainian children murdered in this month of Russian invasion, let’s ignore Auchan and all its products.” The call applied to all of the group’s brands, Ukrainian officials said.
Claude said leaving Russia would be “imaginable from the economic point of view but not from the human point of view”. He told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper that the company would remain because it was providing food. “It’s easy to criticise us but ... we are acting for the civil population,” he said.
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Last week Zelensky told the French parliament that French groups should stop supporting the Russian economy and he named Auchan, Leroy Merlin and Renault. The car maker reacted by suspending operations at its Moscow factory.
President Macron has told French businesses that they should decide for themselves whether or not to leave.
The Total energy group, which has big Russian operations, decided to remain but it has bowed to pressure, saying it will stop buying oil from Russia by the end of this year, though it would keep its minority stakes in two big liquefied natural gas plants there.
Yannick Jadot, the Greens candidate in next month’s French presidential elections, has accused Total of “complicity in war crimes” because it continues to operate in Russia.
