Ukrainians Go Nuts Over Special Postage Stamp : Puchin ... Go Fcuk Your Mutter

Russian Warship, Go Fuck Yourself Stamp. Image : Ukrposhta

On 24th Feb 2022, the day when the illegal fullscale invasion of Ukraine by Russia had began, a small detachment of Ukrainian border guards stationed on the tiny Zmiinyi Island ( Snake Island ) in the Black Sea openly defied a call to surrender when confronted by the Russian missile cruiser Moskva and instead told the warship to go fuck itself. In doing so, they bravely risked death and destruction and the entire garrison was subsequently captured by the Russian forces.

The audio clip of that radio transmission was later released by a Ukranian government advisor and the courageous resistance of the soldiers in the face of an overwhelming enemy force quickly became known worldwide as the Snake Island Incident.

Now the Ukrainian Postal Service ( Ukrposhta ) has issued a special stamp showing a Ukrainian soldier giving the finger to the Moskva. It became an instant hit with the Ukrainians with tens of thousands forming long queues at post offices just to buy this stamp. 

Just a day after the stamp release, the Moskva would be severely damaged after being hit by Ukrainian shore-based anti-ship missiles ( ASM ). It eventually sank one day later with an untold number of casualties ...  

President Volodymyr Zelensky with his stamp sheets
and autographed first day covers. Photo : Ukrposhta

Most Extraordinary Stamp Issue

This " Russian Warship, Fuck You ...! " stamp issue is highly unusual. In my close to five decades of pursueing stamp collecting as a hobby, I must confess I had never seen anything like this. It is by philatelic standards exceedingly obscene.

As most of us know, the postal authorities are usually some kind of government controlled or affiliated organisation and they are mostly conservative when it comes to postage stamp designs. Common themes include plants and animals, important landmarks and scenery, famous people, historical events, artistic and cultural stuff ... all very prim and proper, sometimes to the point of being boring! They hardly ever contain offensive words or pictures. All that changed with the release of the Ukranian special. This is a watershed moment in the history of philately, make no mistake.

The profane hand gesture by the soldier is boldly illustrated in the stamp design and it was officially sanctioned by the postal service! Allowing a obscene image to be in public circulation on a stamp is simply unheard of in the past! Despite the indecent nature of the stamp design, the Ukranians embraced it and many rushed to the post offices to purchase this stamp on the first day of issue. 

Just a million copies have been printed, a very small quantity for a country of 40 million people. Having said that, the normal print run for Ukrainian Post's special stamp issues typically range from only 20000 to 130000 copies. Despite a six fold increase in production, stocks of the " Russian warship, fuck you ... ! " were exhausted at the post offices within a few days and the Ukranian Postage Service's home page declared the stamp only available from online sales thereafter. However, till this day since the stamp release, the Ukrposhta online shop would never load when you clicked on the link, having fallen victim to Russian DDoS cyber attack. 

The stamp issue comes in two denominations, F and W. Interestingly, the letter F did not stand for what I initially thought it could be. The F denomination has a face value of 23UAH ( Ukrainian Hryvni ) which is about USD0.77. It is used for domestic postage. The W denomination has a face value of USD1.50 and is used for international postage.

For those lucky enough to have laid their hands on this stamp, they will likely reap a tidy profit should they choose to resell. Prices are already quite wild on Ebay. Enterprising Ukrainians are listing the single W denomination stamp at US$75 and the entire block of six at US$445, shipping not included!

The winning design, number 3 in a list of 20.
A gesture is worth a thousand words. Ukrposhta.

The Winning Design

Slightly more than a week after the Snake Island Incident on 1st Mar 2022, Ukrposhta announced a public contest for the sketch of a special stamp issue " Russian Warship Fuck You!". There were a total of more than 500 submissions and twenty designs made it to the final round. These were then put to the vote online on 12th Mar. The Ukrainians overwhelmingly voted for design number 3 by artist Boris Groh. It garnered 1756 out of 8000 votes from Facebook and Instagram users. You can see all of the 20 illustrations that made it to the final at the end of this article.

Boris Groh profile photo from Youtube.

Boris Groh is a professional artist who used to live in Yevpatoria, Crimea. When Russia invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014, he was forced to leave home and initially moved to Kyiv. He is currently based in Lviv. He mostly specialises in dark science-fiction and fantasy art and quite a number of his illustrations feature giant skeletons and monsters. Some of his previous works can be seen here and here.

According to Ukrposhta, when Boris Groh heard of the heroic defense of Snake Island by the Ukrainian military on the first day of the Russian invasion, he was so impressed that he decided to paint a picture to raise the morale and spirits of fellow Ukrainians as well as to draw the attention of foreigners who follow his art work on social media. It was completed in about 3 days and would have only taken 5 hours had he not been distracted by the news. He promptly submitted his artwork when the competition for the stamp design was announced and the rest, as they say, is history.

Roman Hrybov receiving an award for his bravery 29 Mar 2022.
Photo : Ukraine Defense

Now Hear This ...

The transcription of the exchange between Moskva and the defenders of Zmiinyi Island goes something like this :

Moskva : I am a Russian military ship. I propose you lay down your weapons immediately, to avoid bloodshed and unnecessary deaths. Otherwise you will be bombed.

Moskva : I repeat. I am a Russian military ship. I propose you lay down your arms or you will be hit. Do you copy.

Ukrainian : This is it. 

Ukrainian : Or do we need to fuck them back off?  

Ukrainian female : Might as well.

Ukrainian : Russian warship, go fuck yourself.

End of transmission

The original exchange was in Russian and can be heard in the video created by The Independent below.

Contrary to what was erroneously reported initially, the thirteen soldiers on Snake Island were not killed by the bombardment which occurred after the ultimatum was issued. They were captured alive by the Russian Navy and were brought to Sevastopol in Russian controlled Crimea. Roman Hrybov, the soldier who uttered the now famous phrase, had to endure a month of imprisonment at an unknown jail where he was constantly starved and beaten by the prison guards. He was eventually repatriated to Ukraine via a prisoner swap but had lost 10kg of his body weight. On 29 Mar 2022 Hrybov even received a medal for his bravery, though he insisted that he is not a hero.

Stamp sheets and first day covers autographed by Roman Htybov and
the director general of Ukrposhta Igor Smelyansky. Photo : Ukrposhta

Russian Warship Go ... ! Glory To Heroes

The official title of the special stamp issue when translated to English is " Russian warship go ... ! Glory to heroes! ". The title is printed in both the Ukrainian and English language on the margins of the stamp sheet together with stylised illustration of a voice transmission. Of course all the " traffic light " sheet markings used by the colour printing process are also there, except that they take the form of the Ukrainian Crest and are not in the usual round shape. 

The colour scheme of the stamp design closely resembled the state colours of Ukraine with the soldier standing on a yellowish looking ground and the warship off-shore with the blue sea and sky as the background. From the point of finalising the design, Ukrposhta had exactly one month to get it ready for release. The stamps are printed in sheets of six and a first day cover bearing the same design as the stamp is also on sale for 6UAH. A special postmark depicting the outline of Snake Island was commissioned for use on the first day of stamp issue on 12 Apr 2022.

Special first day of issue postmark depicting outline of Snake Island

Smelyansky (L) and Hrybov autographing first day covers.
 Photo : Ukrposhta

On the first day of issue at Kiev's Central Post Office, Ukrposhta's director general Igor Smelyansky could be seen autographing first day covers with Roman Hrybov. There were long queues at post offices all over Ukraine as the ordinary folks just wanted to have the stamp that mocked Russia. 

Long queues at Kyiv's Central Post Office to buy
the Russian Ship Special. Photo : Ukrposhta FB

Here's what Smelyansky had to say about the " Russian Warship, Fuck You " stamp issue. "Ukrainian philately during war is a reflection of the events experienced by our state and our people. The phrase that inspired us to create the postage stamp has already become a symbol of indomitability of the AFU, the volunteers, the territorial defense, all Ukrainians in the fight for their land and the independence of Ukraine. I am sure that Ukrainians and our friends from abroad will be pleased to receive letters with such a postage stamp. And today in this postal way we once again remind the invaders that they should immediately get off our land and follow their ship." 

Demonstrators at Helsinki 26th Mar 2022. Wikipedia

Already, people all over the world are picking up that phrase and giving Russians the verbal abuse that only they deserve as invaders, murderers, barbarians and mother fuckers. 

You might have heard of the Georgian maintenance ship whose first mate not only refused to provide fuel but told the requesting Russian ship to go fuck itself. Fucking invaders, added the captain. When the Russian asked what happens if he ran out of fuel, he was told to use his oars! This incident likely inspired stamp designs Number 15, 17 and 20. ( See end of article for illustrations ) 

Stamp and first day cover auction on Prozorro. Image : Ukrposhta

Real Benefits For The AFU 

Even before the dust had settled from the stampede for the Russian Warship stamps, Ukrposhta had already conducted an auction for the first day covers autographed by Roman Hrybov and Ukrposhta Director General Igor Smelyansky. It was conducted through the Ukrainian government's online public procurement / tender platform Prozorro on 22 Apr 2022. After several rounds of contested bidding, the winning bid, submitted by a certain Luis Perez, was 5 million UAH ( US$165300 ) and all proceeds would go to the Armed Forces of Ukraine ( AFU ) to fund the war effort.

More autions have been planned for the future with first day covers autographed by the Commander-In-Chief of the AFU General Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

The Moskva in a 2012 file photo. Wikipedia

The Moskva Fucked

The Moskva is a guided missile cruiser of the Russian Navy commissioned in 1983. It was previously known as the Slava but was renamed Moskva ( meaning Moscow ) in 1995. It was the flag ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Only three such cruisers had been built and they are monstrous with a full load displacement of 11490 tons and a complement of 510 officers and enlisted personnel.

Late on 13th Apr 2002 just a day after the special stamp was issued, the Moskva was at a location 180km south of Odessa when it was hit by two, possibly more, land-based Ukrainian RK-360MC Neptune ASM. The missile strike started a fire which could not be controlled and could have caused secondary explosions involving the ship's ammunition stores. The Moskva subsequently sank the next day while being towed to port.

The Moskva burning and listing to port. Photo : Wikipedia

Russia never wanted to admit that its cruiser was hit by missiles. It claimed that an ammunition fire onboard had damaged the ship and it could not be contained. The cruiser sank in stormy weather when being towed. Casualty figures were not released by the Russian Navy until 23rd Apr 2022, almost 10 days after the incident, with 1 dead and 27 missing. 396 sailors were rescued. 

The leaked photograph of the burning and heavily listing Moska was consistent with the damage that one would expect from missile strike(s), according to expert analysts such as H I Sutton of the CovertShores fame. This was later corroborated by a senior Pentagon official who said that the cruiser was hit by two Ukranian Neptune missiles. 

Ukrainian RK-360MC Neptun ASM at a glance.
Image : @Capt_Navy via Twitter

The Neptune ASM is a Ukraine designed and manufactured subsonic, sea-skimmimg anti-ship missile based on the Soviet-era KH-35 missile ( NATO reporting name AS-20 Kayak ). The KH-35 is also known as the Harpoonski as it resembled the US Harpoon ASM both in external appearance and functionality. 

It was developed by the Kyiv based Luch Design Bureau from 2013 and was problematic as it suffered from chronic lack of funding. Despite these hurdles, the first successful flight tests were conducted in 2018 and the Neptune coastal defense system was officially accepted for service in late 2020. The missile has a maximum range of 280km and has radar-homing for terminal guidance. It carried a 150kg warhead and was designed to defeat frigates and destroyers up to 5000 tons in displacement.

Neptune ASM USPU-360 mobile launcher with quad canisters. Wikipedia

That the Ukrainian Armed Forces could have conducted a successful missile strike on the Moskva already defied comprehension as the Russian cruiser was supposed to have a multi-tiered air defense system to protect not only itself but other friendly naval assets in the immediate area of operations from aerial threats. It had the long range S-300F Triumf surface to air missile in 8x8 cell VLS, the short range OSA-M ( SA-N-4 Gecko ) missile and 6 x AK-630 CIWS as the last line of defense. 

With sometimes less than a minute of warning from the discovery of an inbound ASM to the warhead striking home, defeating such hostile threats required the immediate execution of preset missile drills that had been rehearsed countless times in the past. There is simply no time to think. Speculation is rife that the Russian sailors were either caught napping or were just not prepared or trained well enough for this type of attack.

Having said that, a warship as large as the Moskva could probably survive one or two hits from anti-ship missiles provided the missiles did not strike any critical infrastructure and that the damage mitigation effort is excellent. The rapid sinking of the Moskva was really unexpected and could be due to a combination of bad luck such as the missile striking ammunition stores and poor fire fighting and damage control. 

In fact, before this incident the Russians had believed the Moskva was unsinkable so much so that the Russian Orthodox Church placed a relic of utmost importance, a fragment of the True Cross, within the ship's chapel. Whether this ancient artefact made it out with the survivors of the doomed cruiser remained to be seen.

The loss of the the Moskva which bears the name of the Russian capital city to puny Ukraine was a tremendous humiliation for Putin. It is a BIG deal as the last time the Russian Navy lost a flagship in battle was in 1905 during the Battle of Tsushima ( 対馬沖海戦 tsushima oki kaisen ) where the battleship Knyaz Suvorov, flagship of the Imperial Russian Navy's Second Pacific Squadron was destroyed by Japanese torpedo boats. 

It was estimated that the Black Sea Fleet had lost a third of its combat capabilities with the Moskva gone. Currently its biggest surface combatants are 3 frigates and with the Bosphorus Straits closed to the Russian Navy there would be no immediate replacement possible for the sunken crusier. Forbes Ukraine had estimated the value of the Moskva at USD$750 million. That price obviously did not include the cost of the yet untold number of Russian lives lost with the ship. With such a calamity befalling on the Black Sea Fleet, Putin as the commander-in-chief did not bother to visit Sevastopol where the Fleet HQ is located to check on the survivors. He does not even pretend to show concern for the well being and the lives of his own soldiers. It's probably only a matter of time before he is, uhm, fucked out of office. 

Nobody fucks with the Ukrainian farmer. Image : Ukrainian Farmy.

What Ukrainians Really Wanted To Say

When the 2022 invasion of Ukraine began 8 weeks ago, no military analyst worth his salt or any of the major Western powers had given Ukraine any chance of resisting the Russian troops for more than a few days at best. The Americans even offered to evacuate Volodymyr Zelensky from his capital but the resolute President of Ukraine refused and instead said that what he needed was ammunition, not a ride. The will of the Ukrainian people to defend their homeland and the strong leadership by the Ukranian government ensured that the Russian invaders got bogged down and were inflicted with heavy losses. They had overcome all odds to have not only fought and survived for 2 months but to counterattack and drove the Russians out especially in the vicinity of Kyiv and northern Ukraine.

Ukrainians take great pride in defying the Russians in everyway possible and have embraced heroes like the fabled MiG-29 fighter pilot only known as the Ghost of Kyiv who had supposedly shot down quite a number of Russian aircraft and ordinary soldiers like Roman Hrybov who valiantly stood up against tyranny in the face of adversity, in the process becoming a national sensation. It is always a pleasure to show the Russians the Middle finger.

This " Russian Warship .. Go Fuck Yourself " phrase had caught the attention of the entire world and had immediately become the rallying war cry for Ukrainians in their fight for survival and freedom. The issuance of the special stamp further consolidated the global awareness of this unusually defiant statement which came from a small group of Ukranian defenders of an island in the Black Sea that nobody had heard of before.  

The fact that the Moskva had been sunk barely two days after the stamp issueing was most probably coincidental, but it was payback time for the destruction of the facilities on Zmiinyi Island and the ill treatment of the captured border guards. Ukrainians are now clamouring for Ukrposhta to issue Putin stamps, with the hope that a similar prophecy can be fulfilled. I believe Ukrainians are just too restrained to put it down in ink or print but what they really wanted to say is Puchin ..... Go Fcuk Your Mutter.