The first McDonald’s restaurant in Ukraine has reopened at least nine times since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, surviving repeated attacks and damage to the neighbourhood around it, according to an NBC news report.
Located in Kyiv, the restaurant opened in May 1997 as the first McDonald’s outlet in the country and has since remained open through some of Ukraine’s most turbulent periods, including the 2013-14 Maidan Revolution and the ongoing war with Russia.
The restaurant was forced to close along with McDonald’s other Ukrainian outlets when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Damaged in attacks
Zlatoslava Supruniuk was eight years old when the restaurant opened in 1997. She remembers standing in a long queue with her parents to try McDonald’s for the first time. When they finally reached the counter, they ordered a hamburger, a cheeseburger, fries and a Coca-Cola.
“We were a post-Soviet country,” she said. “For us it was a shock. It was thrilling, especially for a child. It was unbelievable.”, she recalls.
The restaurant also remained a landmark during the Maidan Revolution of 2013 and 2014, when protesters built barricades nearby while demanding the removal of then-president Viktor Yanukovych.
In May 2026, coinciding with the restaurant’s 29th anniversary, Russia launched 90 missiles and 600 drones, setting parts of the neighbourhood on fire. An adjacent mall caught fire, and the heat melted the restaurant’s golden arches. Shrapnel tore into the walls, while some second-floor windows have been replaced with wooden panels.
Over the years, its ability to reopen after each disruption has also become the subject of an old joke among Ukrainians.
“They say even a nuclear strike would only keep it shut for two or three weeks,” NBC News reported, referring to the joke.
Supruniuk, who lives nearby, has witnessed several attacks from her apartment overlooking Kyiv.
“McDonald’s is melted, and we’re a bit melted,” she said, “but we’re still in our place.”
Shut after invasion, reopened during war
The impact of the war on McDonald’s operations began well before the May attack. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the company shut all 109 of its restaurants in Ukraine, as well as 850 outlets in Russia. It continued paying its 10,000 employees in Ukraine while its restaurants remained closed.
The company later resumed operations in Ukraine, including at the Kyiv outlet. Its restaurants in Russia, however, did not reopen.
In Kyiv, soldiers are among its regular customers, stopping for coffee or a cherry hand pie, a long-time favourite on the Ukrainian menu.
Every morning at 9 am, staff and customers pause for a moment of silence as part of Ukraine’s observance to honour those killed in the war.
Maksym Portyanchenko, a bike courier who delivers restaurant orders around the city, arrived in Kyiv from Kharkiv, near the Russian border, on the same night as the May attack. He later came to the restaurant, describing it as a place people can turn to even amid the uncertainty of war.
“If you come here and have nowhere to go,” he said, “you can come in.”
(Edited by Maryam Hassan)