A photo of a postage stamp from the Republic of Chad with an image of the burning Crimean Bridge, issued in support of Ukraine, has gone viral on the Internet. We decided to check whether such a stamp was actually issued in an African country.
A photo of a stamp in support of Ukraine with the burning Crimean Bridge, allegedly issued in the Republic of Chad, was published on several not the most reputable Ukrainian and Russian news portals, for example Activatica, "Politicus", SVTV News etc. The news also spread on Telegram: the agency’s channel wrote about it UNIAN, "Ukraine.ru", "Arrow"etc. Yes posts about this in blogs LiveJournal. Write about the brand users social networks - Twitter, Facebook, VK.
We were unable to find news about the release of such a stamp either in the press of the Republic of Chad or in foreign media in general - they write about this mainly in social networks and Russian and Ukrainian sources. At the same time, when the Ukrainian post issued such a commemorative stamp, large international agencies wrote about it, for example Reuters And The Guardian.
Website The Ministry of Post and New Information Technologies of the Republic, where news about the release of new stamps might appear, is currently unavailable, so we were not able to check if there is anything similar there. However, most likely, such news would have been covered in the local press.
There is no information about such brands on any website Universal Postal Union, nor catalogs for philatelists. Moreover, design stamps that were issued in the republic in 2020–2021 are strikingly different from the distributed image of the Crimean Bridge.
However, a brand photo is not just a collage in a photo editor. Such brands can actually be found in sale in Ukrainian themed stores. They are also available internationally. websites - however, they promise to deliver them not from Chad, but for some reason from the same Ukraine.
The image of the brand spread across the media and social networks after it posted on Twitter there is a user with the nickname Jay in Kyiv, who clearly supports Ukraine. The photo was published on November 9, 2022 at 01:33 pm and we couldn't find any previous posts with this image. This tweet is quoted from Reddit — and this is practically the only mention of the brand with the Crimean Bridge in the English-language segment of the Internet. After this, the image began to rapidly spread across social networks, and then it was picked up by the media.
Postal stamps The Republic of Chad is truly very colorful and diverse. Perhaps that is why they are often counterfeit. In 2001, the Chadian postal administration even sent to the Universal Postal Union letter with a warning about the production and distribution of counterfeit stamps of the Republic of Chad by private companies in Belgium, Lithuania and the USA. The production of such counterfeit stamps continues even now, which is why there are even websites for philatelists chapter "illegal" brands of Chad.
Thus, we were unable to find any convincing evidence that such stamps were actually issued in Chad (or any other country). In addition, information about this is distributed mainly in Russian and Ukrainian social networks and the media - there is not a word about such brands in the international English-language and French-language authoritative press.
Cover photo source: Telegram channel UNIAN
Most likely not true
Read on the topic:
- Is it true that in the Spanish textbook they used a map of Ukraine, modified based on the results of the referendums?
- Is it true that Charlie Hebdo released an issue with a cover about the blackout? Kyiv?
- Is it true that an Israeli TV channel showed a cartoon about the “Ukrainian pig” and Europe?
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