Russia has started a total war against Ukraine on 24 February 2022, what appears to be the most blatant violation of international law in Europe since World War II. On Russian-occupied territories, human rights are being violated, there are reports of numerous rapes, abductions, extrajudicial executions and looting. Indiscriminate shelling, including use of unguided cruise missiles, incendiary and cluster bombs, have left tens of thousands civilians dead and over 2,5 million displaces, looking for safety abroad. Over 200 schools have been destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of people are being held hostage in cities surrounded by Russia such as Kharkiv or Mariupol, where Russian troops are shelling routes of evacuation corridors agreed upon during bilateral talks. Even a member of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine was killed in Russian shelling of Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

In the wake of Russian invasion and human rights violations, and also its occupation of Crimea and Donbass, German government refrains from sanctioning Russia and keeps buying natural gas, oil and coal from terrorist state, thus directly financing the ongoing war of terror unleashed on Ukraine by Vladimir Putin's regime. Even if the government maintains such an immoral stance, private-owned businesses should be held up to higher standards. We demand that services of Metro AG, operating wholesale stores under brands METRO and MAKRO, would cease operations in Russia and leave the market serving to fuel and finance immoral and illegal war being waged against the sovereign nation of Ukraine.