Leroy Merlin, a French chain still in Russia, angers its Ukrainian workers

Workers in Ukraine say the two situations are incomparable.

“They are talking about the well-being of Russian workers,” said Yevgeniy Kuzmin, digital director of Leroy Merlin in Ukraine. “But we are facing life and death in Ukraine – this is war,” he said by phone from Lviv, with an air raid siren blaring in the background.

In interviews, Ukrainian workers admitted that Leroy Merlin had taken numerous steps to help deal with an unfolding humanitarian disaster when the Russian military invaded on February 24. It authorized donations from its stores, including sand, wood and insulation, which allowed Ukrainian soldiers to build air raid shelters and use sandbags to block Russian military vehicles. Some of Leroy Merlin’s workers took up arms or joined the Ukrainian cyber army to fight the invasion.

Meanwhile, said Mr. Kuzmin, the opposition grew online.

“We started to receive a lot of hate messages from our customers on social media who said, ‘Guys, you are an international company and you are also present in Russia. This means that much of the funding goes to the Russian state budget, which helps support war,” Kuzmin said.