Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba sat down for some McDonald’s to celebrate the franchise reopening in Ukraine.
During a two-day visit to Ukraine ahead of the G20 Summit this weekend, Blinken and Kuleba sat down to swap stories of eating McDonald’s as college students with some French fries and cherry pie. Kuleba described the reopening of McDonald’s in Ukraine as sending a “message of confidence,” according to Reuters.
“I think having McDonald’s in the country is a message: a message of confidence,” Kuleba said of an earlier phone call with Blinken when Kuleba cited the importance of McDonald’s returning to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.
Over large fries and a cherry pie, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba credited his American counterpart Antony Blinken with helping get the US fast-food restaurant McDonald's to reopen in Ukraine after Russia's invasion https://t.co/KwYOYKyflY pic.twitter.com/EV4zODyMBD
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 7, 2023
“This is how the comeback of McDonald’s started – in the phone conversation,” Kuleba shared. “And this is why we’re here tonight.”
In February 2022, McDonald’s announced it would temporarily pause operations in Ukraine due to the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia. Months later, the franchise revealed it was working to reopen its restaurants in Ukraine, according to Axios.
“When I was a student, my best hangover food was to go to McDonald’s,” Kuleba told Blinken, adding he would order a double cheeseburger and a big Coke.
"When I was a student, my best hangover meal was McDonald's,” Foreign Minister Kuleba said.
— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) September 6, 2023
Kuleba and Blinken ended the day with a trip to McDonald's, where they shared their student stories 😃 pic.twitter.com/NpVpYApAI7
“I’m sure that was very rare,” Blinken told Kuleba. “That never happened to me.”
While McDonald’s left Russia as well, a knock-off version of the franchise, called Vkusno & Tochka or “Tasty & That’s it” opened and recently celebrated its one-year anniversary.