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Home / World

From craft beer to Molotov cocktails: Ukrainian brewery joins war effort

By Colin Freeman
Daily Telegraph UK·
28 Feb, 2022 01:00 AM4 mins to read

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The beer is brewed in a large champagne-style bottle, which Zastavniy said was the ideal size for petrol bombs. Photo / via Twitter

The beer is brewed in a large champagne-style bottle, which Zastavniy said was the ideal size for petrol bombs. Photo / via Twitter

A Ukrainian craft beer brewery has converted its bottling facilities to a petrol bomb factory, making Molotov cocktails that can be thrown at Russian tanks.

The Pravda Brewery in the western city of Lviv is using bottles of a beer it already makes called Putin Huilo, which translates roughly as "Putin the d***head".

It first started making the beer in 2014 as a protest against Russia's annexation of Crimea.

On Sunday, in what is perhaps the ultimate act of guerrilla marketing, the brewery said it was using the same bottles to make stashes of Molotov cocktails for Ukrainian self-defence militias.

"Right now, nobody is drinking much beer anyway because of the war, so we decided to use the bottles to make Molotovs instead," said Juri Zastavniy, the manager of Pravda.

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"As a brewery, we have access to large numbers of bottles, and we also know to handle materials and generally keep everything clean and safe."

Pravda, which also operates a hipster craft beer bar in downtown Lviv, has 25 staff, some of whom learned how to make Molotovs during the protests that toppled Ukraine's pro-Kremlin government in 2014.

Zastavniy said it helped the war effort to have Molotovs that were ready-made by experts, as they could injure the user if not properly constructed. "It can be very dangerous if you don't put a proper cork into the bottle, for example," he said.

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At his brewery in an old industrial quarter on the outskirts of Lviv, where start-up firms operate from old shipping containers, Pravda's staff were churning out hundreds of Molotovs on Sunday in the corner of a yard.

They used a mixture of petrol and other household ingredients blended to a specific recipe that they had downloaded from the internet. Ukraine's civil authorities have also issued the public with instructions on how to make Molotovs, urging civilians to use them to "neutralise the occupier".

Pravda Brewery, based in Lviv, Ukraine, has suspended its beer brewing operations and is now making Molotov cocktails for residents to use against invading Russian forces.

The labels on the bottles say “Putin is a dickhead.” pic.twitter.com/ZqrHEpaOK4

— Travis Akers (@travisakers) February 27, 2022

The Putin Huilo beer - described as a "dry-hopped golden ale" - has a label depicting Putin as a tattooed Russian mafia boss sitting on a throne.

In his lap sits a childlike-version of Dimitry Medvedev, Russia's former prime minister, who holds a toy-like version of the MH17 airliner. The plane was shot down by Russian separatists over Ukraine in 2014, killing 298 civilians.

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The label on the bottle, which is printed in English, tells drinkers about the history of Putin's annexation of Crimea. "This action violated world orders established after World War Two, and set off the expansion of Russian terrorism throughout World War Two," it reads.

Pravda Brewery in Lviv, Ukraine, has switched production from making beer to making Molotov cocktails. The label says ‘Putin is a dickhead’. pic.twitter.com/hEx8hWWHzL

— Helen Ingram (@drhingram) February 26, 2022

The beer is brewed in a large champagne-style bottle, which Zastavniy said was the ideal size for petrol bombs. He added, though, that the company would be making Molotovs donated from every brewery in the city. "Even the big brewery from Carlsberg offered their bottles for free," he said.

Asked if the famous Danish brewery had specifically endorsed its brand for use in combat against Putin's forces, Zastavniy was vague.

A week ago in Lviv, Ukraine many of these students were enjoying their Sunday afternoon. Today, they are making bombs. pic.twitter.com/7QXXi4mnuz

— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) February 27, 2022

"They don't specifically say for Molotov cocktails, but you can read it between the lines," he said. "They said: 'if anyone needs thousands of bottles, they can be collected at our address'."

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