Ukrainian stamps put humor, patriotism and swearing into mail

Rude gestures are rare on postage stamps, but Ukraine’s best-known stamp has one. It shows a soldier raising the middle finger to a Russian warship in reference to a standoff 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 importance of the seal that what was left was delivered to the government delegations represent Ukraine on the world stage.

Ihor Smilyansky, the head of the Ukrainian postal company Ukrposhta, admits 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 it’s breaking all the philatelic (stamp study) rules and all the rules. But we’re about breaking the rules.”

Ukrposhta often tests its designs on the public, and the results of these online polls are often very political as well.

That’s how Ukraine’s best-selling stamp was born, showing a Ukrainian tractor towing a captured Russian tank and featuring the popular wartime salute: “Good night, we’re from Ukraine.”

Ukrposhta has sold around eight million stamps.

Stamps with those of Ukraine the famous mine-sniffing dog Patron earned Ukrposhta around $500,000 (£400,000) – 80% of the money was spent on mine clearance equipment and the rest on animal shelters.

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

Ihor Smilyansky says a dose of humor is added to Ukrposhta stamps to keep up Ukraine’s 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 it with a sense of humor. And that’s what our labels are sometimes about.”

Oscar Young of UK stamp dealers and auctioneers Stanley Gibbons says Ukraine’s war-centric approach to stamps is highly unusual.

“In general, the stamps are artistic and polite, but to go out of your way and be quite rude, to put profanity and be very gestural on the stamps, that’s quite unique to these particular issues,” he tells the BBC.

He says the candid image used on the warship stamp 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 look bland in comparison.

“I think they’re like the Ukrainian thought process, they’re just strong and they’re not bowing to whatever comes to their country,” he says.

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