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Danone has announced that it has retired its Russian brand Prostokvashino and launched a new Ukrainian brand, Prosto Nashe. The company broke the news on 24 August, on the Independence Day of Ukraine, as it said it represented “another symbolic step towards strengthening the identity and authenticity of Ukrainian production”. Work on the project is said to have begun more than a year ago. Evgeny Bardzik, marketing manager of Prosto Nashe, said: "Having left the name in the past, we are taking with us into the future our experience in production, our expertise in the quality of milk and dairy products, and our unwavering commitment to supporting local farmers supplying us with raw materials". Prosto Nashe’s portfolio will include milk, kefir, ryazhanka (traditional fermented milk), sour cream and cottage cheese. All products will be produced at one of the Danone plants in the Kremenchuk, Poltava region and will use farm milk supplied to the plant from nearby farms. Marketing director of Danone’s business in Ukraine, Andriy Poluektov, commented: “The Prosto Nashe brand in every manifestation, starting from the form and content and ending with each individual element of the identity on the packaging, demonstrates the values it professes”. Poluektov added that Prosto Nashe “is not a play on words, but the true essence of the brand, which reminds us of simple values that are important now more than ever”. It follows last month's news that Vladimir Putin had signed a decree stating that the Russian government would temporarily seize control of Danone’s unit in the country, as well as Carlsberg’s local brewer, Baltika. FoodBev contacted Danone for further comment.