The Metro Central Office threatened the Ukrainian branch with disconnection from the centralized supply of goods, co-founder of monobank Dmytro Dubilet said on Telegram.

"From the first day of the war, the Ukrainian office of Metro began to apply to the German office with a demand to close the business in Russia. Initially, they received a blah-blah letter in response that they did not believe that their sales in Russia had an impact on the war. And in general, they say, they donate money to the UN... Moreover, according to Ukrainian employees, the German office began to threaten the Ukrainian branch that if they do not stop the pressure, then Ukraine will be disconnected from centralized procurement and supply of goods, which in general can lead to complete stopping business in Ukraine," Dubilet said.

The businessman also recalled that in 2014, METRO AG decided to simply re-register two METRO shopping centers in Crimea (Simferopol and Sevastopol) as a separate legal entity in Russia in order to avoid sanctions.

"A rally is taking place in Düsseldorf [March 19]. I urge everyone to join: beginning at 13:00 near the Düsseldorf Landtag," Dubilet said.

According to the press service of the company, the METRO Ukraine team clearly expressed its position on the need to close the business of METRO AG in the aggressor country – Russia. An open letter was written to the leadership of the group in Düsseldorf, an official appeal to the President and other state officials with a clear expression of position.

"We continue to work in all regions of our presence, providing operational activities where possible, providing access for our Ukrainians to food and essential goods. From the first day of the aggression, we have been providing humanitarian assistance worth millions of hryvnias to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the territorial defense, hospitals and local communities in Kyiv and the regions," METRO Ukraine said in a release.

It is also noted that the head office of METRO AG and other branches of the company in Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Germany, Moldova, Belgium, and the Netherlands support financially and provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and Ukrainian employees.

Metro Cash & Carry Ukraine was founded in 2003. It unites 23 classic METRO Cash & Carry wholesale centers in the largest cities of Ukraine – Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Lviv, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Kryvy Rih, Mariupol, Zaporizhia, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa and Mykolaiv, as well as three wholesale stores Bery Vezy in Ternopil, Lutsk, and Chernihiv.