War in Ukraine: Insult stamp becomes a collector's item – middle finger for the “Moskva”
Created: 04/16/2022Updated: 04/16/2022 10:32 p.m
By: Bedrettin Bölükbasi
In the Ukraine war, the shooting down of the "Moskva" represents a heavy blow for Russia. In Ukraine, the success is celebrated with a postage stamp.
Munich/Kyiv – In the Ukraine conflict, the Russian army is now concentrating on eastern Ukraine.
This map shows where the Ukraine war is raging.
While clashes are increasingly shifting to the Donbass, Kyiv is under renewed attack and attention is mainly focused on upcoming ground fighting, the Black Sea is undoubtedly another important front in the Ukraine war.
In the past few days, the Black Sea has suddenly come into focus.
The reason: The flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the cruiser Moskva, went down after it was allegedly hit by two Ukrainian Neptun anti-ship missiles - a huge success for the Ukrainian military and a heavy blow for Moscow.
The Ukrainian people are enthusiastic about the incident and are collecting a very special stamp to commemorate it.
Ukraine war: Russia's "Moskva" sinks after Neptune bombardment - apparently also Bayraktar involved
How exactly the Ukrainian army managed to shoot down and sink the "Moskva" remains unclear.
What is certain, however, is that two Neptun anti-ship missiles made in Ukraine were used.
This information was also confirmed by the US Department of Defense.
How and why the numerous defense mechanisms of the Russian flagship, such as the S-300 air defense system, could not prevent the attack remains unanswered.
Among other things, there is talk of the use of the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone, which the Ukrainian army has already repeatedly used against the Russian army.
According to the theory of Ukrainian sources, the cruiser's air defenses were "distracted" by the drone.
This is said to have enabled the launch.
The Russian reserve captain and military expert Vladimir Gundarov expressed a similar assumption to the Russian broadcaster RTVi.
It is possible that the Bayraktar fired on the S-300's radar and thus "blinded" the ship's defenses.
However, this information has not yet been verified.
From the Russian side it was initially said that there was a fire and that the "Moskva" was damaged but still afloat.
A day after the shooting down of the ship became known, however, Russia admitted that the cruiser had sunk.
A severe storm while the ship was being towed back to shore was given as the reason for this.
It was previously said that the storm was hampering extinguishing work on board the ship.
Meanwhile, Moscow released a new video showing the rescued crew of the ship.
War in Ukraine: Ukrainians celebrate launch of the “Moskva” – Ukrainian Post produces special postage stamp
The news from the Black Sea was greeted with enthusiasm and joy in Ukraine.
On social media, Ukrainian users celebrated with jokes.
"The Moskva has now been upgraded from a cruiser to a submarine," wrote one user.
"The Moscow River is now 'freeing' fish in the Black Sea," said another user.
It seems that the Ukrainians do not want to forget such a great success of their army so quickly and are now collecting a special postage stamp of the Ukrainian Post, which is intended to commemorate the encounter with the "Moskva".
The "Moskva" in connection with the Ukraine war is by no means new.
When the Russian Navy attacked the Ukrainian Black Sea island of Ostriv Zmijiny, known as Snake Island, earlier in the war, a ship called on the 13 Ukrainian soldiers on the island to surrender.
It was no other ship than the "Moskva".
The Ukrainian troops replied briefly but plainly: "F*** you!" They were later presumed dead, but it turned out they were captured.
While still believing in their deaths, they were honored as "Heroes of Ukraine" by the Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian soldiers' short, yet extremely succinct reply was engraved in the memory of the Ukrainian people and can now be seen on the postage stamp honoring the brave attitude of the Ukrainian soldiers.
A Ukrainian soldier can be seen looking towards the "Moskva" from the coast.
In one hand the soldier holds a rifle and with the other hand he shows his middle finger to the ship.
The caption reads, "Russian warship, f*** you!"
A Ukrainian Post stamp showing a Ukrainian soldier giving the middle finger to the Russian cruiser Moskva has become a collector's item.
© Screenshot/YouTube
Ukraine War: After "Moskva" was shot down - demand for special Ukrainian postage stamp is huge
The demand for the stamp, which has long since become a collector's item, is huge.
In the capital Kyiv, people queued for hours in front of the post office to get hold of a copy of the limited edition of one million pieces.
The stamp was
already sold out on Friday afternoon
(April 15) .
In early March, Ukraine Post announced a contest to commemorate the Snake Island event.
From over 500 proposals, 20 were shortlisted, writes the
New York Post
.
Ultimately, the illustration by artist Boris Groh was selected.
"When we designed the stamp, we didn't know how this episode would end, but we are very happy about it," commented Ihor Smelyansky, General Director of Ukraine Post.
Selenskyj also presented himself on Instagram with the stamp.
"We wanted to print more," said Smelyansky.
But Russian airstrikes on Kyiv "disrupted the operation of the factory and we could not print the planned amount".
Now other brands are to be produced as soon as possible.
(bb)