A man in Kyiv holds postage stamps depicting a Ukrainian border guard and the Russian warship Moscow, which was recently sunk on April 14, 2022. VALENTIN OGIRENKO / Reuters
The crowd of hundreds in front of the central post office in Kyiv became increasingly restless. Some of them stood in line for more than eight hours just to buy a stamp.
Not any kind of seal. A stamp depicting a lone Ukrainian soldier turning a bird on a gray Russian warship, capturing perfectly the spirit of disobedience of this country in one of the emblematic moments of this 56-day war.
The image is based on the response of Roman Hribov, commander of a unit of 19 State Border Guards that were stationed on Snake Island, a Ukrainian outpost in the Black Sea, at the start of the war.
On February 25, the second day of the war, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the missile cruiser Moscow, approached the island and demanded that the Ukrainian garrison surrender.
“This is a Russian warship,” someone said in an audio recording of the Cdr exchange. Hribov and Moscow, which quickly went viral in Ukraine and abroad. “Please lay down your arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary deaths. Otherwise you will be bombed. “
Cdr. Hribov can be heard jokingly asking a member of his unit if he should clarify his position.
He then responded with a remark that is now on billboards and armor stickers throughout this war-torn country: “Russian warship, go, fuck it.”
Cdr. Hribov and the other guards were initially thought to have been killed, but it turned out that they had been captured. All 19 returned to Ukraine in a prisoner exchange late last month, and Cdr. Hribov was awarded a medal.
People line up to buy postage stamps at Ukrposhta, Central Post Office, Kyiv, April 20, 2022. Anton Skyba / Globe and Mail
The episode became even more famous after “Moscow”, which fired cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities during the first seven weeks of the war, sank on April 14. Ukraine says it fell after being hit by two anti-ship missiles.
Among the hundreds in line in front of Kyiv’s main post office were people who saw the purchase of one of the commemorative stamps as part of a patriotic debt, in part as a souvenir collection.
One million copies of the warship’s reversal stamp have been printed, and more than 700,000 have already been sold.
“Maybe this is our patriotism. We want to help. The money will go to support the army, as far as we know, “said Anna Kobushkina, a 25-year-old surgeon who said she had been in line for an hour.
Each stamp costs 24 Ukrainian hryvnias, four of which go to the country’s armed forces. “I will buy as much as they give me,” she said.
With hundreds of people in front of her, and those in front began to bump and bump, Ms. Kobushkina seemed to have little chance of getting to the post office before the end of the workday.
She said Cdr. Hribov’s action was a “beautiful moment” that captured the country’s struggle for independence, adding that he hoped to one day hand over the seals to his grandchildren.
“By their actions, they have shown that even a small group of Ukrainians do not want to surrender,” said Igor Krupsky, a 56-year-old pharmacist who was also in line for an hour for soldiers who opposed Moscow. “For me personally, this means that although Ukraine is not a big country, we will oppose the Russian aggressor by all possible means.
Some believe the challenge to Snake Island guards has helped inspire Ukraine’s wider military efforts, which have seen the country’s smaller military oppose forecasts by retaining one of the world’s largest armies. Earlier this month, Russia was forced to abandon – at least temporarily – its attempt to take Kyiv in order to focus on a smaller battlefield to the east.
But in a country that has suffered a catastrophic economic blow since the start of the war, many who were ordered to buy stamps on Wednesday did so less out of patriotism than out of a need to make some money. The International Monetary Fund predicts this week that Ukraine’s gross domestic product will fall by 35 percent this year, almost entirely as a result of the war.
People line up to buy a newly issued stamp in honor of the disobedience of the border guards of Snake Island, Kyiv, April 20, 2022. Anton Skyba / Globe and Mail
The stamps cost the equivalent of about $ 1 each at the post office, but packages of 12 sold for several thousand dollars on eBay and other websites on Wednesday.
For the most part, people want to buy them and then just sell them, said Alexei Alexandrovich, 22, who said only his first and father’s names and said he was in line at 5am. He plans to immediately sell all the brands he managed to buy to a friend who intended to keep them a little longer to see if prices continue to rise.
Igor Smilyansky, chief executive of the Ukrposhta National Postal Service, was beaten by search stamps when he arrived in front of the main post office – located in Kyiv’s central Independence Square – on Wednesday afternoon. Some have demanded that volunteers helping the country’s army gain priority access to stamps.
Mr Smilyanski told The Globe and Mail that even if most people lined up in the post office try to make some money, the prices paid for the brand elsewhere speak for themselves.
“I think the brand’s popularity around the world sends a message to the Russian military where it needs to go. And I’m glad that this message will be sent more than a million times. “
He said that Ukrposhta is already designing more limited patriotic brands. He even hinted that “Moscow” could reappear on one, as it is already a “submarine”.
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