Ukrainian Brewery Trades Beer for Molotov Cocktails in Fight Against Russia Invasion

A file photo of a man holding a lit Molotov cocktail bomb. (Anthony Wallace/AFP/Getty Images)

A Ukrainian brewery has traded in craft beer for Molotov cocktails in the fight against Russia’s military invasion.

The Pravda brewery in western Ukraine’s main city Lviv, took to Instagram on Monday to appeal for donations for the materials needed to make the cocktails, which are typically bottles filled with flammable liquid such as petrol or alcohol.

“Thank you friends from around the globe for your willingness to help. Many of you commented on how to improve the design of the cocktails. Thanks! Remember—we are a small but professional brewery and do a lot of research! Not just theory—many of us went thru [sic] the bloody street protests of 2014,” the brewery wrote on Instagram alongside a photo of the apparent Molotov cocktails.

“Every cent will be used to bring the end of the enemy or help those who suffer.”

It comes after residents in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv were told to “make Molotov cocktails” last month following Russia’s invasion.

“Make Molotov cocktails, neutralize the occupier!” the Defense Ministry wrote on Twitter.

“We ask citizens to inform about the movement of [Russian] equipment! Make Molotov cocktails, neutralize the occupier! Peaceful residents—be careful! Do not leave the house!” the Defense Ministry wrote on Twitter, according to a translation.

Yuriy Zastavny, the owner of the brewery, told Fox News on Monday that he and his staff decided to use their own “chemical skills,” and supplies to make the cocktails in an effort to help in the fight against Russian military troops, which invaded the country in February.

“Once we understand what can come through beer—because it’s no time for beer, we need to get other things sorted out—we decided to make Molotov cocktails because we can use bottles, we can use the people, and it was a grassroots idea,” Zastavny said.

The owner said that Ukraine has frequently turned to Molotov cocktails during other uprisings and protests in the last few decades so its people are well aware of how to make them, adding that all empty bottles can be put to use for a “good purpose.”

“We know how to make them stick; we know how to make them light very well,” he said. “And we can unite, together, our theory of brewing and chemistry with the practice of using that eight years ago.”

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden addressed the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, and condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack against the country as “premeditated and unprovoked.”

During his first State of the Union speech, Biden referred to Putin as a dictator while vowing to continue sending aid to the country in addition to the sovereign loan guarantee of up to $1 billion the United States has already sent to help the country’s economy.

Biden also announced in the speech the United States would be joining several other western nations in barring Russian aircraft—including commercial and private flights—from entering U.S. airspace, in addition to sanctions the administration has already imposed on Russia’s finances.