Ukraine adds Subway fast food chain to list of ‘war sponsors’

Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has added Subway, the U.S. fast food chain, to its list of international sponsors of war, according to the agency’s website.

The statement says that more than 500 restaurants remain open in Russia, which pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes to the Russian budget. The agency says that Subway “actively advertises its activities through sanctioned Russian social media and delivers food through Yandex services.” After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the company never announced that it was leaving the Russian market.

According to the NACP, Subway said that all its restaurants in Russia were independently owned and operated by local franchises, which is how Subway has stayed open in Russia. Ukraine says this claim is misleading.

NACP’s statement notes that Subway allegedly hired a Russian law firm to find a legal way to collect royalties from Russian franchises, since Western companies can’t receive royalties due to restrictions imposed by Russian banks. According to the agency’s information, the law firm found mechanisms to legally collect royalties from Russian Subway restaurants.

“There were no attempts to condemn Russia’s war against Ukraine from the company’s management,” said NACP.