(NewsNation Now) — In the Ukrainian village in Chicago, you won’t find a lot of Russian products available for sale, which is predictable given Russia’s recent history of aggression toward Ukraine.

Tryzub Ukrainian Kitchen owner Myron Lewyckyj opened his doors in 2014, when Russia was invading Crimea. He told NewsNation’s Kelsey Kernstine that he decided then to never sell a Russian product of any kind. “We immediately banned all Russian food product, alcohol in our restaurant, we put up posters and encouraged our patrons to do the same,” Lewyckyj said.

“We’re proud of the fact that we don’t sell Russian products, because Russia is for, at least 8 years, not behaving the way that they are worthy of having the right to sell a product on the international market,” he continued.

Hundreds of bars, restaurants and liquor stores across the U.S. and Canada are boycotting Russian alcohol after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some liquor stores are pouring out hundreds of bottles of Russian vodka.

Jamie Stratton, partner of Jacob Liquor Store Exchange in Wichita, Kansas, said, “There’s no reason for it to be here, what they’re doing right now is going to cost the world a lot of problems.”

He was echoed by Robbie Barclay, store manager of Uptown Wines, Beers and Spirits in downtown Denver, “We’re not carrying it because I don’t want to look at it, and we don’t want to look at it, because we stand with Ukraine.”

State governors are getting on board, too, with the governors of Utah, New Hampshire, Texas, Pennsylvania and Virginia calling for all Russian liquors to be removed from bar and liquor store shelves.

Arkansas U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton came up with the unique idea to, “Dump all the Russian vodka and, alongside ammo and missiles, send the empty bottles to the Ukrainian people to use as Molotov cocktails.”

It’s important to note that in 2020, U.S. distillers saw profits of $7 billion. As of 2017, Russian distilled spirits only accounted for a bit more than 1 percent of the total U.S. sales, according to the Distilled Spirit Council of the United States. A lot of Russian-styled vodkas such as Stoli, Svedka and Smirnoff are not made in Russia but in Latvia or the U.S.

But for the bar, restaurant and liquor store owners, it’s about the symbolism of their gestures. They are expressing their support for the Ukrainian people and their condemnation of what Russia has done to Ukraine.