McDonald's Ukraine announced that the chain's restaurants will be opened in stages — the first to open will be the establishments in Kyiv and the west of Ukraine. McDonald's announced this on Facebook.
The company reminded that on February 24, the work of restaurants in Ukraine was suspended due to the ongoing war.
"Since then, our employees, franchisees, and suppliers have mobilized to provide financial and humanitarian assistance to our Motherland and Ukrainians who also need help. Together, we established an employee benefit fund to support our people and financially supported the initiatives of the Ronald McDonald House Foundation, which helped children and families by providing medical supplies to hospitals and other places where help was needed. The company continued to pay the salaries of more than 10,000 employees, and countless members of the McDonald's Family around the world opened their hearts, homes, and restaurants to those seeking asylum.
While the challenges were indescribable, the experience also bore witness to what Chris Kempczynski said at the McDonald's World Convention earlier this year: It's in the darkest times that the Golden Arches shine brightest. Our entire system's commitment to feeding and growing communities – whether around the corner or on the other side of the world – is something we can all be proud of.
Supporting our people in Ukraine continues to be our number one priority. We have had many conversations with our employees, who have expressed a great desire to return to work and see our restaurants in Ukraine reopen where it can be done safely and responsibly. In recent months, the belief that this will add a small but important sense of normalcy has strengthened. And Ukrainian officials noted that the enterprises that resume work would support the local economy and the Ukrainian people.
After extensive consultations and discussions with Ukrainian officials, suppliers, and security experts, and in light of requests from our employees to return to work, we have decided to implement a phased plan to reopen some restaurants in Kyiv and western Ukraine where other businesses have safely reopened. Over the next several months, our partners and we will be working to restore restaurant supply chains, prepare restaurants to serve customers, return restaurant teams and employees to the work environment, and implement enhanced procedures and protocols to keep our people and customers safe.
As we prepare to serve our Ukrainian customers again, we will be guided by our values ​​and our purpose to feed and grow communities."
