Big 4 grocers, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons have been pictured filling up at at an Essex oil terminal where a shipment of Russian diesel arrived this week.
According to an investigation by Greenpeace UK, supermarket tankers were filmed over the past few days after a 33,000-tonne shipment was delivered.
Fuel tanks from the Big 4 grocer’s were tracked and pictured offloading the diesel.
As a result, Greenpeace has written to all four supermarkets demanding an explanation, and asking them to call on the government to ban Russian fossil fuels from entering the UK.
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Greenpeace UK oil and gas campaigner, Elena Polisano said supermarkets were “quick to remove Russian vodka from shelves and rename their chicken Kievs as chicken Kyivs”, but if they were truly want to stand by Ukraine, they should make sure they’re not filling their pumps with Putin’s diesel.
Polisano said: “Customers will be outraged if supermarkets are asking them to donate to Ukraine at the till, but passing their money to Putin at the pump.
“At the very least, they should demand that the government implement an immediate ban on imports of Russian fossil fuels.”
The news comes as a YouGov poll revealed 73% of people want the UK government to bring in an immediate ban on imports of Russian oil and gas.
However, 74% of the British public are unaware that fuel on sale at supermarket petrol stations may contain Russian diesel, with 71% want grocers to immediately end the sale of Russian diesel.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We stand together with the people of Ukraine and have taken a range of steps to show our support – from helping to fund the humanitarian effort on the ground, to removing products from our stores which are 100% sourced from Russia.
“Today we have confirmed that we are already working to reduce the amount of diesel we sell which comes from Russia and we will stop selling diesel from Russia in our petrol filling stations in line with the UK’s action against Russian oil imports, by the end of the year.
“This is a complex process which we are committed to working together with the rest of the UK fuel industry and government to achieve, as part of the UK’s action against Russian oil imports.”
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