Wednesday, March 09, 2022

This article was originally sent via email from CEO Dirk Van de Put to Mondelēz International employees on March 9, 2022.

Dear Colleagues,

As the war in Ukraine continues to escalate, our hearts go out to everyone whose lives have been upended by this senseless and tragic violence, people in and around Ukraine and everyone around the world with family, friends and loved ones in Ukraine. We condemn this unjust aggression and stand firmly with those calling for peace and an end to the war.

We continue to prioritize the safety of our people and our operations remain closed in Ukraine. The outpouring of care for our Ukrainian colleagues has been so heartwarming and we’re continuing to provide strong financial support, border-crossing assistance and help with finding safe shelter, including in our facilities in neighboring countries. Our colleagues across Europe and beyond continue to open their hearts and their homes, volunteering, donating products and helping however they can.

As a food company, we are scaling back all non-essential activities in Russia while helping maintain continuity of the food supply during the challenging times ahead. We will also continue to support our colleagues in the market who are facing great uncertainty. We will focus our operation on basic offerings, discontinue all new capital investments and suspend our advertising media spending. We recognize this is a highly dynamic and very concerning situation that we will continue to assess and adjust as needed.

Additionally, we are stepping up our humanitarian efforts with a multi-million-dollar commitment, including cash donations to Save The Children and other aid organizations, extension of our employee double-match program with International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), and in-kind donations to various humanitarian organizations in the region.

Thank you, again, to everyone who is working together to address these immense challenges, doing what’s right to protect our people, serve our consumers, support our local communities and mobilize humanitarian aid, now and in the future.

Best,

Dirk