Major online retailers in Russia have started selling foreign-made household appliances destined for the Ukrainian market, the business newspaper Kommersant reported Wednesday, citing local distributors.
Among the e-commerce sites offering products intended for Ukrainian consumers are Ozon and Wildberries, which have been found to sell Bosch washing machines and LG Smart TVs that bear Ukrainian stickers and come with Ukrainian-language instructions, according to the newspaper.
Dmitry Shashkin, who heads the Russian division of German kitchen appliances maker Kuppersberg, told Kommersant that shipments remained “huge since some foreign brands have told their Turkish, Polish and Baltic production plants” to continue supplying the Russian market “in order to maintain their positions.”
Retailers told Kommersant that Ukraine-destined products from companies like Italy’s Delonghi or the Dutch brand Phillipps were being sold through backchannels to Russia amid falling demand in war-torn Ukraine.
“Demand for the purchase of household appliances decreased [in Ukraine], local retailers are refusing to purchase products after the outbreak of armed hostilities [and] emigration from the country,” an anonymous retailer was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Following the deluge of Western sanctions and a mass exodus of Western companies in response to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow introduced a system of “parallel imports” that allows foreign-made goods to be sold in Russia without approval from trademark owners.
As of last month, 2,175 foreign companies remain in Russia compared with 1,610 that left or scaled back operations, according to the Kyiv School of Economics.