The pressure on the wholesaler Metro to withdraw from Russia is growing - and it is coming from its own workforce, of all people.

Via the LinkedIn careers platform, Olga Podorozhna accuses the Düsseldorf company's board of directors of helping to finance the war against Ukraine with its taxes and business in Russia.

Jonas Jansen

Business correspondent in Düsseldorf.

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According to Podorozhna, who worked for Metro in Kyiv for more than seven years, she has now taken up arms.

She added a photo of herself with a machine gun to her post, which received more than 18,000 reactions and almost 700 comments in just one day.

"I'm sure that your financial success doesn't depend on Russia alone," writes Podorozhna, "please don't pretend that this isn't your war too."

Your call to give up business with the "occupier" is supported in the comments by numerous Metro employees, both from Ukraine and from the Düsseldorf headquarters.

Metro CEO Steffen Greubel, otherwise quite active in the career network, did not comment there on Wednesday.

When asked, the company said it was also "deeply shocked by Russia's attack on Ukraine and the unbearable suffering of the people".

The wholesaler is concerned about the 3,400 employees and their families in the country.

The board of directors “dealed intensively” with the question of withdrawing from Russia, but decided against it for the time being because Metro also had to take its 10,000 employees in Russia into account “who bear no personal responsibility for the war”.

In addition, the supply of food to the people in the country is important.

This was also explained in detail to the management in Ukraine.

"Everyone was aware

There is also objection from the top Metro management in Ukraine.

The managing director there also shared calls on Linkedin to stop the Russia business.

The official Metro Ukraine account also made its own contribution to Olga Podorozhna, calling the employee a heroine.

On Wednesday, 21 of the 26 Metro department stores in Ukraine were open - this is decided every day by local management "based on the security situation".

The wholesaler operates 93 stores in Russia, where the company generates almost a tenth of its sales.