Ukraine puts Domestos, Rexona, Dove on its list of international sponsors of war

Ukraine's Agency for the Prevention of Corruption has added the British corporation Unilever to the list of international sponsors of the war.

The company owns more than 400 brands, including Domestos, Axe, Rexona, Dove, and CLEAR.

The company's enterprises still operate in Russia, where they pay taxes, contributing to the war against Ukraine.

Unilever employs over 3,000 people in Russia. In 2022, the share of Russian business accounted for 1.4% of Unilever's turnover and 2% of its net profit, which in 2022 increased by 24.9% compared to 2021 and amounted to €8.03 billion.

Last year, the company's revenue increased to €60.1 billion (+14.5%). Unilever's sales have the largest increase in cosmetics (+20.8%).

After Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, the company pledged to suspend all imports and exports of its products to and from Russia, as well as to stop all media and advertising spending.

However, its factories in Omsk, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, and Tula still continue to operate.

During the year of the war, Unilever Russia's profit doubled from €56 million in 2021 to more than 9.2 €108 million last year.

Unilever Russia paid about $50 million in taxes to the state's budget in 2022.

We have included this company in the list of international sponsors of the war because their tax contributions to the Russian budget finance the war against Ukraine and may even indirectly finance a group of Russian mercenaries, said NAPC Chairman Oleksandr Novikov.

Ukraine's agency explained that its goal is to put reputational pressure on companies to make it reputationally unprofitable for them to continue working in Russia.

British Unilever is one of the world leaders in the food and household chemicals market. It owns more than 400 brands. These include Domestos, Axe, Rexona, Dove, Calve, Rama, Brooke Bond, Lipton, Crème Bonjour, CIF, Knorr, Sunsilk, Timotei, CLEAR, Chysta Liniya, and others. 280 enterprises manufacture the products.