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On the night of Sept. 6, shortly after the announcement of $1 billion in new U.S. funding for Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken sat with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, munching on french fries and cherry pie in a McDonald’s in Central Kyiv. After reminiscing about the fast food hangover meals of his student days, Kuleba explained the significance of the photo op to the assembled reporters: Earlier in the war, he had asked for Blinken’s help in convincing McDonald’s to reopen the locations it had closed following Russia’s invasion, to convey a sense of normalcy.
The event was also a pointed message to Russia. McDonald’s restaurants in Russia — including the iconic Pushkin Square location in Moscow, where thousands of Russians had lined up for a first taste of capitalism in 1990 — have been closed…
