Starbucks exits Russia as war persists

The company sent a memo to employees Monday that it will shut down its 130 coffee shops and remove its brand presence from Russia. Starbucks will continue to pay its nearly 2,000 Russian employees for six months to help them transition to new jobs. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three months ago, the company left its Russian stores open and donated profits to humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine, but closed them a few days later after other franchises in the country closed.

What’s happening in Ukraine? A Ukrainian official said Russian forces are stepping up their bombardment of the Donbas area. In the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, military official Pavlo Kyrylenko said the front lines of Kramatorsk, one of the biggest cities not under Russian rule in the region, are bombarded by nearly constant shelling. The majority of the population has already evacuated, he said. Of more than 1.6 million people who lived in the region before the invasion, there are “not more than 320,000 people” left.

Dig deeper: Read WORLD’s latest coverage of the war in Ukraine.