Smirnoff vodka maker Diageo pauses exports to Ukraine and Russia

Spirits company Diageo, the maker of Smirnoff vodka and Guinness, has paused exports to Ukraine and Russia, the company said on Thursday.

“Our priority is the safety of our people in Ukraine and the wider region,” a spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the Russian troops were in the centre of the Ukrainian port of Kherson on Thursday after a day of conflicting claims over whether Moscow had captured a major urban centre for the first time in its eight-day invasion.

Russia’s defence ministry said it controlled Kherson on Wednesday but an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy responded that Ukrainian forces continued to defend the Black Sea port of about 250,000 people.

A Ukrainian delegation had left for a second round of talks with Russian officials on a ceasefire, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters.

Russian forces have yet to overthrow the government in Kyiv but thousands are reported to have died or been injured and more than a million people have fled Ukraine amid the biggest attack on a European state since 1945.

“They (Russian military) started shooting from their BMP (military vehicle), towards the park in front of the post office in the centre of Borodyanka,” said a Ukrainian man, who did not give his name.

“Then those bastards started the tank and started shooting into the Fora (supermarket) which was already burned. It caught fire again.”