Ukrainian stamps put humor, patriotism and bad words in the mail

Rude gestures are rare on postage stamps, but Ukraine’s best-known stamp has one. It shows a soldier raising a middle finger toward a Russian warship in reference to a clash on Snake Island on the first day of the full-scale invasion nearly three years ago.

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

The warship in question, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk by the Ukrainians two days after the stamp was issued and sold out a week after going on sale.

Such is the meaning of the seal that what remained was delivered to government delegations represent Ukraine on the world stage.

Ihor Smilyansky, director of the Ukrainian postal company Ukrposhta, acknowledges that it was a risky step.

“It was my decision. I said: I don’t care what other people think. I just think it’s the right thing to do,” he told the BBC. “I know that it is breaking all the philatelic rules (stamp study) and all the rules. But what we are looking for is to break the rules.”

Ukrposhta often tests its designs on the public, and the results of such online polls also tend to be highly political.

Thus was born Ukraine’s best-selling stamp, which shows a Ukrainian tractor towing a captured Russian tank and features the popular wartime greeting: “Good evening, we are from Ukraine.”

Ukrposhta has sold about eight million such stamps.

Stamps with Ukraine Pattern of the famous mine detector dog Ukrposhta made around $500,000 (£400,000): 80% of the money was spent on demining equipment and the rest on animal shelters.

Another stamp of a Mural left by the renowned graffiti artist Banksy. in a shell-ravaged building on the outskirts of Kyiv, helped fund 10 bomb shelters. This stamp features another popular but unprintable Ukrainian slogan, this time directed against Vladimir Putin.

Ihor Smilyansky says that a dose of humor is added to Ukrposhta stamps to maintain Ukrainian morale during the war with Russia.

“Humor has become a fighting force for Ukrainians in this war,” he tells the BBC. “Even in the most difficult circumstances you have to take things with a sense of humor. And that’s what our labels are sometimes about.”

Oscar Young of UK stamp dealer and auctioneer Stanley Gibbons says Ukraine’s approach to stamps, focusing on the war, is highly unusual.

“In general, stamps are artistic and polite, but going out of your way and being quite rude, putting bad words and being very gesticulating on stamps, that’s quite unique to these particular issues,” he tells the BBC.

He says the candid image used on the warship seal is what made the stamp so famous and caused such a stir when it was issued.

The distinctive character of Ukrainian stamps has earned them popularity among collectors around the world.

Laura Bullivant, from Gloucester, UK, thinks other stamps seem tame by comparison.

“I think they’re like the Ukrainian thought process: they’re just strong and they don’t bow down to whatever comes to their country,” he says.

“At a time of enormous concern and horror, they are bringing something to the game that no other country could.”