Ukraine has introduced a new postage stamp to commemorate the bravery of the soldiers who were reportedly captured defending the country’s strategic Snake Island.
The new postage stamp is named “Russian warship, go f*** yourself!”, celebrating the reply of the leader of a group of 13 border guards defending their territory against a Russian warship that told them to give up.
The reply had soon gone viral, become the subject of many memes against Russia and is now a rallying cry for Ukrainians resisting the might of the Russian invasion.
The famous Ukrainian phrase has also been emblazoned on T-shirts.
The stamp, released by the Ukrainian postal service Ukrposhta, celebrates the bravery of the soldiers through a simple art work that shows a Ukrainian soldier carrying a gun and flipping off a Russian warship in the background.
Ukrposhta had held a polling contest for a new postage stamp and had featured several artworks made by the country’s artists.
The winning design was created by artist Boris Groh, who lived in Crimea but was forced to move to Lviv after the Russian invasion.
It was ultimately chosen by Ukrposhta after it received the most votes online.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s first deputy minister of foreign affairs, Emine Dzheppar, announced Mr Groh as the winner of the stamp design contest on Twitter.
She said Mr Groh’s design had “received the most votes and will soon be published by Ukraine’s state postal company.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky had also announced that the 13 soldiers who stood up to the Russian warship’s threats on Snake Island, would be bestowed the title of “Hero of Ukraine”.
The Ukrainian government has claimed the 13 soldiers, earlier thought to be dead while defending the Black Sea island, had survived the Russian warship’s bombardment and were taken as prisoners.
The country’s navy posted on its Facebook page and said that “we are very happy to learn that our brothers are alive and well with them!”
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