Ukraine’s stamps put humour, patriotism and swearing in the post

Rude hands are rarely found on stamps, but a well-known Ukrainian stamp has one. It shows a soldier raising the middle finger to a Russian warship about to be docked at Snake Island on the first day of a major invasion nearly three years ago.

The Russians wanted to surrender but the Ukrainians refused, using unprintable language.

The ship in question, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk by the Ukrainians two days after the stamp was released, and was sold within a week of the sale.

This is the meaning of the stamp that everything that was left was given to government representatives representative of Ukraine on the national stage.

Ihor Smilyansky, head of Ukraine’s postal company Ukrposhta, admits it was a risky step.

“It was my decision. I said – I don’t care what anyone else thinks. I just believe it’s the right thing to do,” he told the BBC. “I know it’s a philatelic violation [study of stamps] all laws and regulations. But we want to break the law. “

Ukrposhta often tests its designs in public, and the results of online surveys are also political.

That’s how Ukraine’s best-selling stamp got its start, depicting a Ukrainian tractor pulling a captured Russian tank and displaying the famous wartime greeting: “Hello, we’re from Ukraine.”

Ukrposhta has sold about 8 million such stamps.

Ukrainian postage stamps the famous mining dog Patron got Ukrposhta about $500,000 (£400,000): 80% of the money was used for demining, and the rest was used for animal conservation.

Another stamp of a a mural left by the famous graffiti artist Banksy on a house destroyed by shelling outside Kyiv, helped fund 10 bomb shelters. This stamp features another famous but unpublished Ukrainian quote – this time against Vladimir Putin.

Ihor Smilyansky says humor is added to Ukrposhta stamps to preserve Ukrainian culture during the war with Russia.

“Comedies have become a fighting force in Ukraine during this war,” he told the BBC. “Even in the most difficult situations you have to take it with a sense of humor. And that’s what our stamps sometimes have.”

Oscar Young from the UK stamp dealer and dealer Stanley Gibbons said that Ukraine’s way of getting stamps by putting them on the war front is very unusual.

“Usually the stamps are very polite and polite, but to go out and be rude, swearing and be enthusiastic about the stamps – that’s very different from that,” he told the BBC.

He said the unmistakable image used on the warship stamp was what made the stamp so popular and caused a stir when it was released.

The uniqueness of Ukrainian stamps has made them popular with collectors around the world.

Laura Bullivant from Gloucester, UK, believes that some stamps look dull in comparison.

“I think they’re like Ukrainians, they’re strong, and they’re not bowing down to anything that’s coming to their country,” he says.

“At a time of concern and danger, he is bringing something to the game that no other country can do.”