There’s no air raid siren needed for a Big Mac attack.
McDonald’s restaurants are beginning to re-open in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv this week, a sign of how much more secure the region has become since Russian troops tried to take the city in the early days of the war.
Three golden arches locations in the city will begin making delivery orders on Tuesday, with seven more opening next week, according to McDonald’s spokesperson Alesya Mudzhyri.
By October, the international fast-food chain hopes to open its restaurants to in-person customers again, and open locations again in the relatively peaceful western portions of Ukraine.
Micky-D’s shuttered all of its restaurants throughout the country shortly after Russia invaded in February.
“The reopened restaurants will operate to the same high standards of food quality, cleanliness, and speed of service as before,” Mudzhyri said in a statement on social media. “At the same time, McDonald’s is implementing expanded procedures and protocols for the safety of employees and customers.”
Among those protocols, the restaurants will close during any air raids in the capital, so that customers and staff can find shelter.
McDonald’s shut down all of its locations in Ukraine shortly after Russia invaded in February. Global Images Ukraine via GettyBy contrast, there are seemingly no plans to re-open McDonald’s in Russia — where the arrival of the American franchise was once seen as a harbinger of democratic freedoms.
All of the roughly 700 golden arches pulled out of Russia over the invasion, selling the operation to a Russian firm with a lackluster name: Vkusno & Tochka — “Tasty and that’s it.”
Vkusno & Tochka’s takeover has gone about as well as Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, with the fast-food phonies pulling french fries from their menu after a particularly poor potato harvest.






