Ukraine unveils stamps celebrating Kerch bridge explosion - hours after the attack
Timing of the Post Office announcement, just hours after the Crimea bridge was destroyed, raises questions about the nature of the damage
Ukraine’s Post Office has released a new stamp celebrating the destruction of the Crimea bridge within hours of an alleged attack on it.
The stamp draws an analogy between the destruction of the bridge, a prestige project for Vladimir Putin, and the hubris around the sinking of the supposedly indestructible Titanic in 1912 on its maiden voyage.
A drawing on the stamp features two figures who resemble Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet locked in their iconic embrace from the 1997 film Titanic shortly before the doomed ocean liner hits an iceberg.
On the stamp, the two figures stand on the edge of a destroyed bridge. Behind them, smoke billows from its ruins.
“The day has come: We are announcing a stamp with a bridge,” the Ukrainian Post Office said.
The stamp issue also features a drawing of fish swimming past a Russian road sign and traffic lights lying on the seabed.
Mr Putin annexed Crimea in 2014 and immediately integrated it into Russia. The 12-mile bridge was supposed to represent an unbreakable link between Russia and Crimea.
It was opened in 2018 by Putin and has been the main supply route for Russian forces fighting on the southern front line in territory around Kherson that they captured in the first weeks of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine this year.
On Twitter, analysts speculated that the speed of the new stamp’s announcement suggested that the Ukrainian authorities had been preparing for the destruction of the Crimea Bridge, an important prestige project for Vladimir Putin.
Russia has accused Ukraine of attacking the bridge this morning but the Ukrainian authorities have not claimed responsibility.
