Protestors target Uniper because of cooperation with Russia

Dozens of protesters gathered on Thursday July 14th at Dusseldorf by the headquarters of the German company Uniper with a demand to stop doing business with Russia and, therefore, stop funding a terrorist country killing Ukrainians and destroying the country’s infrastructure.

The protest, organized by the local Ukrainian community, included placards reading "Uniper! Stop Bloody Energy" and children's shoes as a symbol of 349 killed Ukrainian children by Russia.

Uniper is a key buyer of Russian gas and coal. And despite international sanctions, the company succumbed to Russia’s blackmail by paying for gas in Russian Rubles. It also owns Unipro, which has 11 GW of heat generation in Russia and is an active participant in Nord Stream 2; In Russia Unipro has annual revenue of $1.3 billion.

The protestors are demanding that Uniper stops its business relations with Russia and stops financing the Russian war machine.

Anastasiya Gadirova, a student, originally from Mariupol, coordinated the protest in Dusseldorf, said, «Russia is terrorizing the world with the food crisis, Europe and Germany with energy resources, using it as a weapon. In Ukraine, Russia  is destroying the civilian population! As it was today in Vinnytsia where Russia bombed peaceful citizens with rockets”. – she also adds, “This is a hybrid war of terrorist-country with the whole world. Western countries and companies should take appropriate and immediate action. Now it is not only about business, and this is about a moral choice of everyone and any companies participating in it! While Uniper has condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the words are meaningless. It is only money that matters to Uniper. And, as a result, it is financing Russia’s terrorism in Ukriane.”

In early April 2022, the most prominent Ukrainian energy companies, DTEK, Naftogaz, and NEC Ukrenergo, launched the #StopBloodyEnergy project calling on Western companies to stop cooperating with Russia in fuel and energy industry. The website contains information about gas, coal (trading), oil service and machine-building companies that continue to cooperate with Russia. Uniper is on the Bloody Energy list.

If Western countries continue to buy Russian energy, Russia will earn $321 billion in 2022 and will be able to [purchase 80,000 armored personnel carriers, 30,000 tanks, 5,000 aircraft, 100,000 armoured vehicles and 3,000 BUK missile systems, which will be used to kill Ukrainians.