(SPOT.ph) A brewery in Lviv has ditched the hops to make a much more potent mix: Molotov cocktails. Situated near the Polish border, the Pravda Brewery switched over to making the petrol bombs as the Russian invasion continues—and after calls from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense itself.
The brewery posted a picture of the incendiary device to their Facebook page on February 27 along with a list of ways to donate. "Remember—we are a small but professional brewery and do a lot of research!" they wrote, noting that they went through similar events in 2014 during the Revolution of Dignity. Not their first rodeo, in a manner of speaking.
Note as well the label they chose to use. The Pravda Brewery makes a Belgian Strong Golden Ale dubbed the "Putin Huilo" which roughly translates to "Putin is a dickhead"—a Ukrainian slogan with origins as a football chant.
"We do this because someone has to. We have the skills, we went through a street revolution in 2014," the brewery owner Yuri Zastavny told AFP. As early as February 26, he posted on Facebook that the team was already hand-bottling Molotovs. "So many people willing to help. We’ll bottle beer later," he wrote.
Pravda isn't alone in their efforts. We're sure you've seen pictures going around online of civilian volunteers making these petrol bombs, alongside clips of Russian tanks on Ukrainian land, to say the least.
On February 25, just a day after Russia launched their invasion, the Ministry of Defense in a Facebook post originally in Ukrainian stated that "It is important that everyone resists." They urged the public to take up arms, noting that their defense forces have simplified their recruitment process, and that homemade options are also a way to go. Google searches for how to make Molotov cocktails then spiked on the local network, according to The Washington Post.