🇺🇦 The Russo-Ukrainian War.
30 September 2022 - President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation announced the annexation of four regions of the Republic of Ukraine - Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia - adding to the previously annexed Crimea - of which Russian forces are partially in illegal occupation following an invasion of Ukraine and illegal and cynical referendums in the various occupied territories.
The postal service of Ukraine has released several new issues since the Russian assault on the country, most recently a charming miniature sheet commemorating Patron, the patriotic terrier who sniffs out Russian mines, who is portrayed on a couple of the stamps in the sheet with a bit of comedy to them, carrying out actions such as fishing and playing a balalaika, as well as a more familiar canine pastime of cocking his leg up and micturating though in this case he is indulging himself by doing so contemptuously on a Russian missile. Great stuff!
But the Russian invasion of Ukraine is no laughing matter with thousands of Ukrainians being injured, killed, terrorised and made homeless by the invading Russian aggressors. With the support of the Western Alliance and other sympathetic countries the valiant Ukrainians have had some spectacular military successes on the battlefields against the invaders and occupiers with tens of thousands of Russian soldiers being killed and in the face of these humiliating defeats the Russian leader has resorted to the annexation of the above territories and this new action brings fresh dangers with it. Now Putin can claim that the territories are an integral part of Russia and a Ukrainian attack on them would be an attack on Russian territory which would allow him to take even more brutal actions than he has so far.
The United Kingdom government has been using an image on social media in response to the annexation of Ukraine’s territories which states that -
DONETSK
LUHANSK
KHERSON
ZAPORIZHZHIA
CRIMEA
ARE
UKRAINE
in the blue and yellow national colours of the Republic of Ukraine.
A number of European postal services have now issued stamps, including recently those of Spain and Portugal, to show support for the people and leaders of the Ukrainian state. Royal Mail is rarely interested in, or capable of, responding to contemporary important world events by noting them on new issue stamps - it’s far too interested in producing trash which it feels will appeal to niche non-collectors who live in fantasy worlds of American film and comic characters and wizards and elves - and no-one in succeeding British governments has recognised in recent years the propaganda opportunities new stamp issues provide and the influence they may have, with appropriate publicity surrounding their issue, to pressure Royal Mail to release stamps on such subjects. Hence, one expects, that the plight of Ukraine will not be noted or protested about or mourned by a release of British stamps any time soon.
Those responsible for Royal Mail’s stamp issues seem amazingly slothful and unimaginative when it comes to responding to events. It is remarkable that the dynamic Royal Mint has already released designs for the new currency depicting King Charles III and said that they will be minted and available to the public before Christmas whereas those responsible for our stamps, seemingly not at all caught up in the moment at this time of a change of monarch, suggest that stamps bearing the new king’s portrait will turn up eventually.
So let me offer a stamp, using the British government’s message on the Russian annexation of the Ukraine regions, to note Britain’s support for Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression and at the same time depict the new king on a (virtual and totally unusable) ‘British postage stamp’ -
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