Vičiūnai Group, controlled by Kaunas Mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis and his business partner Liudas Skierus, was added to Ukraine’s list of international war sponsors, the country’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has announced.
“After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, representatives of Vičiūnai Group promised that the company would leave the Russian market, but it has not stopped its factories in Russia, is looking for new employees, and is paying high taxes to the aggressor,” the NACP said.
Vičiūnai Group, one of the largest manufacturers of fish products in Europe, announced that it would leave the Russian market and close its factory in Kaliningrad after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but has not done so yet.
Kaunas Mayor Matijošaitis has repeatedly said that the company is gradually withdrawing from the Russian market and is looking for a buyer for its factory in Kaliningrad’s Sovetsk.
In 2022, Vičiūnai Group earned a profit of 24.8 million euros in Russia – the highest in five years. The company also sells its products in Ukraine.
“For as long as such well-known brands as Vičiūnai continue to be on the Russian market despite all the war crimes of the aggressor, the world receives the wrong signal that the Russian Federation remains part of international economic processes,” said Oleksandr Novikov, head of Ukraine’s NACP.
Vičiūnai Group refused to comment on Ukraine’s decision to add the company to the list of international war sponsors.
“This time, Vičiūnai Group refrains from commenting,” it told BNS.
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