McDonald’s reopens in Ukraine to satisfy customers’ nostalgia
Customers and delivery people line up at a newly reopened McDonald’s restaurant in Kiev on Tuesday. Three restaurants in Kiev reopened for business for the first time since the Russian invasion on February 24.
KIEV, Ukraine – After seven months of the war, McDonald’s has reopened in Ukraine.
The U.S. fast-food chain temporarily closed more than 100 locations in Ukraine on February 24 when Russia invaded, citing employee safety concerns.
On Tuesday, three stores reopened for business, welcoming war-weary Ukrainians into the warm glow of the Golden Arches. Civilians and government officials alike snapped selfies with their Big Macs and became enthralled with a meal they hadn’t tasted in months.
It’s a great gift from McDonald’s,” Yaroslav Holovatenko said, clutching his Big Mac (Quarter Pounder) in a cold, rainy park in the capital Pozniaki, near the outskirts of the three reopened McDonald’s.
Holovatenko and his friends came from the other side of the Dnieper River. But this McDonald’s pilgrimage was more than just a walk through the same city. It was also nostalgia and hope for the future.
Yaroslav Holovatenko (left) and a friend eat at McDonald’s in Kiev on Wednesday.
“When the war started, no one thought about McDonald’s, but now that life is returning to normal, it’s nice to have a comfortable meal,” he said.
According to Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, up to 3 million people have returned to the city since Russian troops withdrew from the Kiev suburbs in April.
“We believe that our reopening in recent months will bring a sense of normalcy, albeit slight, back to Ukraine,” he said.
McDonald’s senior vice president Paul Pomeroy posted on the company’s Ukraine Instagram page in August.” Ukrainian leaders said that a return to work is the best way for foreign companies to support the local economy and the Ukrainian state.”
And Holowatenko did not take this meal for granted.
He is from Donetsk, which, along with three other Russian-occupied regions, will hold a referendum this weekend on whether to become part of the Russian Federation. If Russia annexes the region, it means there will be no more McDonald’s in Donetsk. The chain has already closed all of its stores in Russia, with local franchisees replacing McDonald’s with discreet cottages.
A Glovo food delivery company takes orders at a storefront after McDonald’s closed. A Glovo food delivery person takes orders outside a reopened McDonald’s restaurant in Kiev on Tuesday.
The newly reopened McDonald’s restaurants in Ukraine have one problem. Customers can only order from the to-go app and cannot eat indoors. There is also a cottage industry aspect, with McDonald’s orders popping up on Craigslist in Ukraine, and competition is fierce.
Outside one branch, dozens of people waited in the rain for up to three hours for food they had pre-ordered on a to-go app. Others were frantically updating their cell phones, waiting for an opportunity to place an order.
Meanwhile, takeout drivers were in and out of restaurants, cradling their precious orders in their arms like newborns.
According to a major Ukrainian car-sharing company, the number of passengers heading to shopping malls has increased by 20-30% since the McDonald’s restaurant reopened.
“It’s a rush. We take orders, deliver them to the pavement, and repeat,” says Maksym Khadav, one of the takeaway’s drivers. I can see the appeal, but it’s just food.”
On January 31, 1990, hundreds of people lined up in front of the first McDonald’s restaurant in the Soviet Union when it opened in Moscow. It was the first American fast food restaurant to enter the Soviet Union.
Nevertheless, he was proud to be the first driver in line to pick up his order at the Aladdin Mall location. It is estimated that there were about 300 couriers in line behind him.
Any Ukrainian of a certain age will remember that the first McDonald’s opened in the Soviet Union in 1990. Hundreds of people lined up in Moscow to buy American hamburgers, despite the fact that one meal was half a day’s wages.
As one boy said in a news report at the time, “I thought they were going to launch nuclear rockets at us, but they gave us McDonald’s and peace.”
Holovatenko said the reopening of the McDonald’s in Kiev was like the younger generation seeing what happened in 1990. The long lines created hope for a future of freedom and democracy.
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