In the summer, Russian state media disseminated information about the upcoming release of a Ukrainian stamp depicting Zelensky, Bandera, Petlyura and Khrushchev. We decided to check how true this is.
In mid-July "Russian newspaper” (the official publication of the Russian government, where adopted laws are also published) posted an article that talked about the upcoming release of a new brand. This stamp, according to the publication, will depict Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, the leader of Ukrainian nationalists in the 1930s and 1940s Stepan Bandera, the head of the Ukrainian People's Republic (1919–1920) Simon Petlyura and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. At the same time, the faces of these politicians are placed against the background Mount Rushmore - a rock in the USA in which the profiles of American presidents are carved. Rossiyskaya Gazeta refers to unnamed Ukrainian media. There is no this information in the Ukrainian media, but the news about the “Ukrainian Rushmore” is on pro-Russian sites writing about Ukraine. For example, on July 14, 2022, the website “Donpress”, and already as a fait accompli, is the earliest publication. There is also news about the brand on the website “Politicus", "Info-24", V "Zene" And Twitter.
There are no reports about the release (completed or planned) of a brand with Zelensky, Bandera, Petlyura and Khrushchev either in the Ukrainian media or in Ukrainian Telegram channels. In one of the earliest records on this topic in “Zen” there is a link to a certain Ukrainian news Telegram channel, where a photo of a stamp is accompanied by text in Ukrainian: “Ukrposhta is preparing a new stamp. It depicts political figures who played an important role in the history of the country.”
It was not possible to find such a Telegram channel with supposedly almost 70,000 subscribers, which allows us to conclude: this is a fake from beginning to end.
Postage stamps of Ukraine are issued exclusively by Ukrposhta. The website of the state postal service has detailed plan printing stamps for every year. In 2022, there are two such plans: a thematic plan for issuing stamps and an operational plan (related to martial law). Due to the Russian invasion, the original schedule was changed, and Ukraine issued several stamps dedicated to certain events at the front - for example, explosion on the Crimean Bridge or flooding cruiser "Moscow". There are no stamps with Zelensky, Bandera, Petlyura and Khrushchev in any chart. There is not a word about this website "Ukrposhta", nor in Facebook, neither in Telegram channel postal organization.
In some records, in addition to the image of the stamp itself, there is a second photograph - a hand that holds two blocks of stamps with the “Ukrainian Rushmore”
Website "Vox Ukraine“, while looking into this case, I quickly found the original photograph. This is a photo from the official messages on the Ukrposhta Facebook page, published on May 23, 2022.
This publication was timed to coincide with the beginning of the official sale of the second series of the famous “Russian Warship...” stamp, dedicated to the sinking of the Russian cruiser “Moskva”. In the two photographs, everything is identical except the stamps themselves: the position of the hand, the shape of the nails, the background and partly the margins of the block. Finally, on the second block (which is in the background) of stamps with Zelensky and the others, the authors of the fake forgot to put a price. On stamps with a Russian warship, the price is indicated by the letters F on one block and W on the second (the first denomination — 23 UAH, the second, for international shipments, — $1.5). But on one of the blocks of stamps with political figures there is no such marking.
Thus, the news about the completed or upcoming issue of stamps with Zelensky, Bandera, Petlyura and Khrushchev is completely fabricated, from the original source to the images of the stamp itself.
Cover photo: social networks
Fake
- Is it true that the Republic of Chad issued a postage stamp depicting the explosion on the Crimean Bridge?
- Is it true that the famous photograph shows Stepan Bandera in a Nazi uniform?
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