Coca-Cola Recognizes Crimea as Part of Russia, Makes Kiev Leadership Angry

Coca-Cola has apologized for not including Crimea, the Kaliningrad Region and the Kuril Islands as part of Russia on its Christmas advertising map. The US company quickly re-issued a new map which included the three Russian regions on it.

The map of Russia with three missing regions, Crimea, the Kaliningrad Region and the Kuril Islands, was published on the Coca-Cola website on December 30. Internet users quickly noticed the mistake and began to express their discontent, sharing the map on social media.

The company quickly noticed its mistake and fixed the map, marking all three regions as part of the Russian Federation.

"Dear community members! We sincerely apologize for the situation. The map has been fixed. We hope for your understanding," the Coca-Cola Company said in an official statement.

Coca-Cola published a map of Russia w/o Crimea. Then it added Crimea. Then it deleted it. https://t.co/AOyLq9It2a pic.twitter.com/dP7O8wydYb

— Meduza Project (@meduza_en) 5 января 2016

​The incident was also noticed by Ukrainian politicians, some of whom said Ukraine should boycott Cola-Cola products for including Crimea as the part of Russia.

Ukrainian MPs Mustafa Nayyem and Oleh Tyahnybok said Ukraine should ban the activity of Cola-Cola in the country.

"Authorities! Immediately ban the activities of this American company in Ukraine, which de-facto recognized Crimea belonging to Moscow," Tyahnybok wrote on his Facebook account.