McDonald’s Begins to Reopen Restaurants in Ukraine This Week

Three McDonald’s restaurants will reopen in Kyiv, Ukraine, this week, a company spokesperson said Monday, fulfilling a pledge the chain made last month to bring employees back to work even as the war persists.

On Tuesday, the restaurants in Kyiv will open exclusively for delivery, Alesya Mudzhyri, McDonald’s head of communications in Ukraine, wrote in a Facebook post, with expanded safety protocols to keep employees safe. All 109 McDonald’s restaurants in Ukraine closed after Russia invaded in February.

McDonald’s is carrying through with its commitment to restore “a small but important sense of normalcy,” which it first expressed in August when the fast-food franchise shared plans to open the restaurants. At the time, Paul Pomroy, a vice president for international operations, said employees expressed a “strong desire” to return to work after many fled the country and others joined the military. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Over the next two months, McDonald’s restaurants in Kyiv and western Ukraine will reopen. In October, restaurants that reopen will be able to host customers in person and via drive-thru windows, Mudzhyri’s post said. The restaurants are set to open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. but will close during air raid alerts to give employees and customers time to go to nearby shelters.

McDonald’s has 39,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries. In Russia, where it had 840 restaurants, the company stopped operating after the invasion and put the franchise up for sale. The Russian restaurants were purchased by a Siberian oil mogul and reopened in June under a different name.