Thousands of Ukrainians have waited in long queues to buy postage stamps showing a soldier giving the middle finger to Russia’s flagship that sunk earlier this month.
Some have waited hours in line for the sheets – with eight stamps on each – that say on the perforated margin: “Russian warship, go ...!” The implied “f*** yourself” is left out.
The words were spoken by Ukrainian border guard Roman Hrybov when the Moskva warship’s crew asked him and a dozen of his colleagues on Snake Island, in the Black Sea, to surrender.
The encounter happened in the early hours of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, and the border guard’s phrase went viral.
Ukraine’s national postal service Ukrposhta released the design last week as a special commemorative stamp. About a million printed stamps will be distributed in Ukraine, in Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia – such as Crimea – and online, including to foreign buyers.
Viktor Fyodorovich was one of those who sought to get his hands on the stamps at the central post office in Kyiv, where the Guardian said scuffles had broke out among impatient collectors. He bought 16 stamps, the maximum allowed for one person.
He told the newspaper: “I’m 63 years old. I’ve never felt so much pride before in our nation. It’s a symbol of our courage and steadfastness.”
Several thousand people queued outside the Kyiv post office on Tuesday, days after president Volodymyr Zelensky posed with the stamp and told Ukrainians on Instagram: “Everyone has to get it.”
The design was chosen by Ukrposhta after it received the most votes online in a polling contest. The artist is Boris Groh, who lived in Crimea but was forced to move to Lviv after the Russian invasion.
There will not be another print run of the warship design. But plans are in place for another anti-Russia design to be made into stamps, according to Igor Smelyansky, Ukrposhta’s director general.
Earlier this month, Ukraine claimed that the Moskva warship sunk in the Black Sea – south of the port of Odesa – after Ukrainian troops fired anti-ship missiles at it. Moscow has claimed that it sunk after a fire broke out onboard during a storm.
A video, released after the sinking, purports to show the survivors meeting the head of Russia’s navy – Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov – in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol.
Meanwhile, Mr Zelensky had also announced that the 13 soldiers, who stood up to the threats issued from the Russian warship, would be awarded the title of “Hero of Ukraine”.
The 13 soldiers had been thought to be dead, before Kyiv had announced that they had survived the Russian warship’s bombardment and were taken as prisoners.
Ukraine’s navy posted on its Facebook page: “We are very happy to learn that our brothers are alive and well with them!”
