NOSThe Nova Poshta office near the front
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 19:16
Kysia Hekster
European Union correspondent
Matthew van de Wiel
news reporter
Kysia Hekster
European Union correspondent
Matthew van de Wiel
news reporter
The white van of postman Serhej carefully drives over the pontoon bridge. The old bridge next to it was shot to pieces by the Russians, who occupied this part of the Donetsk region for months. A few more kilometers to his destination, the post office where he will deliver almost 300 packages. There are signs along the dirt road with warning texts: ‘Attention, mines!’
He says he is not afraid on his daily route. “What have I to fear?” he says. “It’s my job. Someone has to deliver the mail.” Icons that protect him hang from his rear-view mirror next to a Ukrainian flag.
Last year it was different. “When the Russians were still here, I was in the air raid shelter. Then I was afraid.” Serhej points to a ruin along the road. “Look, the Russian signature, that’s how they leave everything they’ve been. It was our music school.” Not a single house is intact, many are uninhabitable.
Secret office
There was also nothing left of the post office where Serhej delivers his parcels. But now there is a new building, almost finished. The roof is being finished. Inside, employees Maria and Natalja are busy with all the packages.
“We didn’t work during the occupation, of course. But we started again the first day after the liberation. We just didn’t have a building, so we worked from Serhej’s van,” says Maria.
That’s how things are at the post, close to the front. It is an example of how most of Ukraine ‘just’ goes on:
This is how Ukrainian soldiers receive mail at the front: ‘of great importance’
Nova Poshta, Nieuwe Post, the postal company Serhej works for, does not want it to be known where the post office is because it may again become a target for Russian attacks. It is the last post office before the front and it is one of the comings and goings of soldiers who come to pick up parcels they ordered online.
‘Mail of vital importance’
“I can’t show you what’s in here”, Anton smiles. “I can only tell you that it has to do with the war.” The young soldier with light blue eyes comes from Zaporizhia and has been stationed here for a year. “It’s war. I can’t just go to a store and find something out. The mail is vital to us.”
Bohdan also agrees, who is willing to tell what he has collected. “With these spare parts I hope to get my army vehicle running again. Ordered yesterday, and picked up now, not bad in wartime, right?”
The Ukrainian post works fast. Since the beginning of the war, the assortment of what is delivered has changed. Fewer letters, more basic necessities. Many packages contain food, clothes or medicines. At this post office, the vast majority of orders are destined for military purposes.
NOSMaria is determined: ‘I will continue working until there is no other option’
Not far from here, according to the Ukrainian army, a new Russian offensive is being prepared. Postal worker Maria is worried. “I remember the horrors of the previous occupation all too well. I don’t want to experience that a second time.”
She doesn’t think about stopping. “I keep working until there really is no other option, until the very last moment. There is nothing to get here in the village, residents and soldiers depend on my work. Only when it is a matter of life or death will I stop,” she says firmly.
Resident Zoja also sounds heroic. “There will be no new occupation by the Russians, I’m sure of that. My husband and I are already preparing for winter. It may be 30 degrees now, but soon it could be -20 here. If the Russians destroy our energy supplies again, then it will at least bother me less, because I just picked up a power converter. By the way, a new television will be coming soon, which I have already ordered.”
Serhej’s van is now empty. As he drives away, he raises his hand to postal workers Maria and Natalja. “See you tomorrow!”
2023-07-22 17:16:21
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