Photo: Артур Альошин | Wikimedia Commons
As Ukraine’s military battles invading Russian troops, Ukrposhta's white and yellow vans filled with parcels, food products, and bags of cash drive have remained a familiar sight for locals. Before the war, the state postal service had turned its network of rural post offices into small community hubs where locals can buy canned goods, sunflower oil, and cookies and sweets at subsidized prices; pay utility bills; and receive the monthly pension payments on which they depend. “These villages don’t have banks, don’t have ATMs, often don’t have shops, and we provide all this,” said one official. It can be dangerous -- 15 employees have been killed, 14 injured, 480 post offices damaged and 50 destroyed. Service stopped in Russian-held parts of Kherson region but some people apparently have been able to cross the front line to post offices in Ukrainian-held territory to pick up pension payments on behalf of others.
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