Imagine standing on an island and a Russian guided missile cruiser shows up on your shore. The “Moskva”, flagship of the Russian Navy, is carrying 16 missiles with a crew of 510. The warship announces "Snake Island, I, Russian warship, repeat the offer: put down your arms and surrender, or you will be bombed. Have you understood me? Do you copy?" There is nowhere to run. Surrender? Of course, not an option. The Ukrainian border guard responds with a defiant "Russian warship, go f--k yourself."
On February 24, 2022 Russian dictator Putin unleashed his military might on Ukraine in an unprovoked and illegal full-scale invasion on multiple fronts. It was Putin’s latest attack on Ukraine after the Russian Federation orchestrated the occupation of Crimea in 2014 and a war in Luhansk and Donetsk regions by nationals and local collaborators. As to Russia’s Feb 24 invasion, military experts predicted Kyiv would fall within days with Russia decapitating the Ukrainian government and installing a puppet regime. But the Ukrainian Army heroically fought back and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians enlisted in volunteer territorial defense forces.
An American offer to evacuate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was turned down with the words “I need ammunition, not a ride.” The words became the battle cry of a nation, and the defiant words of the thirteen Snake Island defenders became a symbol of resistance. With military aide from Canada and other nations, Ukraine continues more than 90-days later to valiantly fight the invaders. As with all wars, the humanitarian crisis has been staggering, thousands of dead and millions fleeing, and civilians in Russian occupied areas subjected to horrific brutality and atrocities regardless of age.
The United Nations says more than 14 million people are thought to have fled their homes since Russia's invasion. About six million women and children have left for neighbouring countries, while eight million are displaced inside war-torn Ukraine itself. Poland, a great supporting friend to Ukraine, has taken in close to 3.5 million people.
Ukraine’s post office, Ukrposhta, appealed to the Universal Postal Union (UPU) to re-election of the chair of the World Association for the Development of Philately (WADP) which is now headed by a representative of the aggressor country. Second, Ukrposhta withdrew from sale and destroyed two joint issues between Ukraine, Russia and Belarus: a 1994 joint issue marking the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Soviet areas during World War II, and a 2013 joint issue honouring the 1,025th anniversary of the Christianization of Rus. Third, Ukrposhta has urged the UPU to apply philatelic sanctions against Russia related to joint issues.
With the breakout of war, festive plans to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of the first modern Ukrainian postage stamps on March 1st were forcibly disrupted. Ukrposhta pivoted and announced an all Ukrainian national competition for the best design of a postage stamp commemorating the Snake Island event. Ukrainian illustrators, artists, designers were invited to participate in the competition. The open phase of the competition ran for only three days. Ukrposhta did not expect so many willing participants in the contest that ended up going beyond Ukraine. A total of 496 emails were received with ideas for the postage stamp that varied from the artistic to the offensive and obscene! The best 20 designs from a philatelic perspective were announced and the public was invited on social media to vote for their favourite.
Many philatelists in Ukraine objected to this stamp being produced viewing it as inappropriate for a national post service. Natalia Mukhina, Head of the Ukrposhta Philatelic Production commented “This issue will definitely go down both in the history of Ukraine and in the history of the world philately. Who was right - those who supported this issue or those who prevented its implementation will be judged in time.”
Out of 8,000 votes, more than 1,700 people voted for the work of Ukrainian artist Borys Hrokh on the official website of Ukrposhta. The winning design showed a marine in a military uniform with a lowered weapon in his hands, giving the finger to an approaching Russian warship. Even CNN picked up the story and reported on the stamp though initially fuzzing out the finger!
On April 12, 2022 the stamps were put into circulation as mini-sheets with 6 stamps per sheet. The issue was limited to 500,000 stamps for each denomination. A cover was also printed. The plan was to issue a "Russian warship, go ...!" stamp for domestic and international mail. Much discussion was centred around the letter denomination of each stamp. A decision was made to stop using the denominations V (UAH 12) and Z (USD 1.00) in perpetuity. These letters were now seen as fascist symbols used as identification by Russian Marines and Russian Forces from the East. In its place Ukrposhta switched to F (UAH 23) for domestic and W (USD 1.50) for international. The F stamp also had an alternative meaning. The printing took place under the whistle of bullets and the rain of missiles.
You may wonder whatever happened to the border guards on Snake Island after they were shot at by the Russian warship. Initial reports said all had perished in the shelling however in subsequent reports most had survived and after some time were released as part of a prisoner exchange. The border guard, Roman Hrybov, who uttered the famous phrase over the radio, was awarded for his services the medal “For Merits to Cherkasy Region”.
On the first day of issue, the stamps were sold in all regional centers of Ukraine (except Kherson, Crimea, and Lugansk region where stamps were held in reserve). It was a major event. The border guard was received as an honoured guest in Kyiv’s main post office and he signed many First Day Covers. A pleased President Zelenskyy was presented with a nice collection of sheets and covers. During the first two days anyone could buy as many stamps as they wanted at the regional post offices. One individual purchased 35,000 stamps. Then demand skyrocketed through the stratosphere. Huge queues formed outside the main Kyiv post office snaking around the block. Everyone on earth suddenly wanted an F-U stamp.
Things did not go smoothly. The Ukrposhta website was hacked a number of times and a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack brought the site to its knees for over a week. Many philatelists were disappointed and angry with how Ukrposhta handled the stamp sales, venting on social media, and the Facebook accounts of both Igor Smelyansky and Natalia Mukhina. Stamp sales were moved to an external internet store Rozetka in an attempt to combat the hacking. This site went down as well. Quite apparently, a group of individuals was definitely not happy with the new stamp. Out of desperation to control the fervent internet purchases, Ukrposhta decided to cancel all online orders and start all over (including this author). Stamp purchases were initially limited to five mini-sheets, then two mini-sheets and finally only one.
By April 20, 2022 over 700,000 stamps were sold out in post offices. For Ukrposhta’s internet Marketplace 150,000 stamps were reserved and the rest to be used for official delegations, museum funds, international obligations within the framework of the Universal Postal Union, and on philatelic subscribers.
Speculators were becoming exceedingly rich. Both dealers and individuals were selling the mini-sheets, single stamps and FDC on eBay, Etsi, Delcampe and other sites. It was also a case of buyer beware as some sellers were defrauding buyers. One eBay dealer had sold 723 mini-sheets at $500 a sheet. A signed FDC was sold for over $2,000. In 2021, the average salary in Ukraine was CAD 1,100 per month. You do the math. Perhaps Ukrposhta should have made this issue a semi-postal and added a significant surcharge to help the military. Despite the crazy pressure from the public for more stamps, Ukrposhta rightfully refused to print additional stamps and FDCs.
Ihor Smelyansky, CEO of Ukrposhta, commented “Yes, I know I have the ability to sell more expensively, but I consider [the stamp] a symbol of the country, not a reason to make extra profits. I know that they sell for 3,500+ hryvnias ($152+), but this is a question to those that do so. If this somehow helps small and medium businesses, well then OK. I know some will say a portion of the funds will go to the Armed Forces but that’s hard to verify.” Ukrposhta also plans to sell t-shirts and sweatshirts (paying for the artist's rights) and part of the funds from each sale would be directed to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The CEO was confident that one million stamps would meet the projected demand. Much to his chargin this was not the case.
As fate has it, on April 13, 2022, the day after the Snake Island incident, the Navy of Ukraine struck the same cruiser "Moskva" with two Ukrainian made Neptune missiles. Due to the damage and difficult weather conditions, the cruiser overturned and sank the next day. The Russian Ministry of Defense finally had to admit the warship was lost for good.
This prompted a second issue which was released May 23, 2022. Like the first issue, it shows a marine in a military uniform with a lowered weapon in his hands, a raised finger but the ship was now missing. The word ‘DONE’ appears on each stamp together with the date April 14, 2022. Like the first issue, the stamps came out in the same two letter denominations. Three million F stamps and two million W stamps were printed in an effort to not repeat the same mistakes of the first issue. The mini-sheets this time have only three stamps together with three labels depicting the image of the first issue stamp. In addition one million FDCs are being printed. Stamp sales will now be conducted through eBay and Amazon. Ukrposhta is the first postal service in the world to open an eBay store.
Natalia Mukhina reflected on this philatelic phenomenon. “The attitude to such a stamp varies - from admiration and support to harsh criticism on the chosen subject. I'll say from myself, not as the Head of the Philatelic Production Department of Ukrposhta, but as a citizen - it's not the time to be a moralist. I agree that this saying, despite being inappropriate for a postage stamp, truly reflects the position of many people who defend their homeland. A Ukrainian postage stamp has always been a reflection of the voice of society, and today society says "Russian war ship, go to …."!
