Sainsbury’s is renaming its chicken kievs and removing all Russia-made products from its shelves in the most decisive action yet by a supermarket following Vladimir Putin’s invasion. 

John Lewis is also removing Russian-made products from its department stores and Waitrose supermarkets. Only two items – Russian vodka and  pizza oven pellets – will be affected by the move.

Sainsbury’s said it would now sell “chicken kyiv” – the Ukrainian spelling – rather than “chicken kiev”, with the rollout expected in the coming weeks.

It will also stop selling Russian Standard vodka and Karpayskiye black sunflower seeds. 

A Sainsbury’s spokesman said: “We stand united with the people of Ukraine. We have reviewed our product range and have decided to remove from sale all products that are 100pc sourced from Russia.”

Gins and vodkas sold by JJ Whitley are made in Russia, but the producer has already announced it will switch to Chorley in Lancashire by the end of the month. As a result Sainsbury’s said it would continue to sell those products.

The moves come after mounting criticism from shoppers over the continued sale of Russian-made products. Reviews left on the websites of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Ocado have called for supermarkets to take them off sale in a show of solidarity with Ukraine. In the US, a handful of US states banned the sale of Russian vodka. 

While the UK has not taken such a radical step, some bars have done so, with London-listed Revolution Bars understood to have already removed the one Russian vodka from its shelves.

Nightcap Group, which owns the Cocktail Club, has also stopped selling Russian vodka in its 25 bars.

Pubs have also started to take action, with Wetherspoon’s this week saying it would stop selling Russian beer “in light of the situation in Ukraine”.

The pub chain said: “We are not implying in any way that anyone involved with the brewery is directly involved with what’s going on but we thought in light of the current situation our pubs don’t want to be serving Russian beers.”