Sainsbury's removes Russian vodka from its shelves

Sainsbury's has announced it will stop selling all products that come from Russia amid the war in Ukraine.

It will remove Russian Standard vodka and Karpayskiye black sunflower seeds from its shelves.

The supermarket said it would also change the name of chicken Kiev to "chicken Kyiv" to match the Ukrainian spelling of the capital.

A spokesperson for Britain's second-biggest supermarket said: "We stand united with the people of Ukraine.

"We have reviewed our product range and have decided to remove from sale all products that are 100% sourced from Russia."

It follows similar announcements from the likes of Morrison's and Co-op to axe sales of Russian-made vodka.

The Co-op, the first supermarket to make such a move, said that the decision was "a sign of solidarity with the people of Ukraine".

It took Russian Standard vodka off sale with immediate effect as it is "overtly marketed as being Russian" and is produced in the country, a spokesperson for the Co-op said on Thursday.

Sainsbury's confirmed on Friday that it would, however, continue to sell JJ Whitley vodka products after the manufacturer said it plans to move all production away from St Petersburg to Chorley n Lancashire.

"We support their announcement earlier in the week that they are moving all production to Chorley in the UK by the end of this month and will therefore continue to sell those products," it said.

According to reports in the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Tesco is also considering renaming chicken Kiev to match the Ukrainian spelling of the capital city Kyiv.

It has not yet confirmed whether or not it would remove Russian-sourced products, but previously said it was following UK government rules on trading with the country.

Elsewhere, other supermarkets in Europe such as the Netto discount chain, has already stopped selling Russian products across their stores Germany, Poland and Denmark.