World
Archived — This article has been archived. The information may be outdated.
Ukrposhta says over 50 postal staff killed since 2022
BBC News··15 Sept
Ukraine's state postal service Ukrposhta says more than 50 staff have been killed since 2022, with hundreds of branches and vehicles hit. CEO Igor Smelyansky told the BBC he maps Russian attacks each morning before sending workers toward front-line villages. The service pays pensions in cash and delivers food and medicine where shops are scarce. Russia denies targeting civilians.
Prism
What It Means For You
- In remote villages, pension cash, utility payments, food and medicine can arrive only when the post van comes.
- Smelyansky said skipping a route leaves people without basic supply, while going can risk drivers under drones.
- Postmistress Kateryna Marynych near Zaporizhzhia still pays customers from a van after her office was hit in March.
What's Happening
- Smelyansky said Russia is deliberately targeting postal staff who help people stay in place through fighting and winter.
- He weighs live attack intelligence against the risk of sending vans into the front-line kill zone.
- The Kremlin has linked some strikes to retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian online retailers.
Why the post remains a war target
- Ukrposhta sits in a Soviet-era building overlooking Kyiv's Maidan square.
- Marynych's Lukasheve post office was hit in March by a Russian drone, the BBC reported.
- Customers described the van visit as a rare monthly link to cash, medicine and neighbours.
all-news
