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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/11/car-bumpers-homemade-pies-no-weapons-allowed-the-unstoppable-postal-service-keeping-ukraine-going>
"In a post office 10 miles (15km) from Ukraine’s frontline, in a suburb of the
eastern city of Kharkiv, business is brisk on a chilly autumn morning – despite
the ballistic missiles that had shaken the city at midnight, lighting up the
sky with a false dawn of flames.
The customer area is fitted out with phone-charging stations “and a small
co-working space, which people can use during blackouts, since we have
generators”, says the branch manager, 30-year-old Yaroslav Dobronos. There is
also a changing room, in which a young woman is trying on, with a critical
gaze, a new pair of jeans, before repacking them and sending them straight
back.
Behind the counters, a miscellany of parcels are waiting for customers to
collect. Each is a fragment of life lived in all its normality and fragility in
a frontline community.
There are winter tyres, widescreen TVs, boxes marked Roshen (a chocolate brand
owned by former president Petro Poroshenko), a folding bed, a car bumper, a
package from an upmarket Ukrainian skincare brand, a bare-root tree, a set of
rucksacks, a pram, a vacuum cleaner, a Russell Hobbs multicooker, and parts for
Starlink (a satellite internet provider for use in remote locations). Out of
one enormous, bulbous parcel pokes a fistful of camouflage net.
Ukraine’s main postal service is, like the country’s rail network, one of its
most vital, reliable arteries: a matter of national pride for Ukrainians and
incredulity for visiting foreigners.
Nova Poshta, founded 25 years ago, is one of the chief reasons that Ukraine
continues to function during a time of extraordinary violence and peril. It is
affordable – it costs the equivalent of between £1.50 and £2.20 to send
packages of between 5kg and 10kg within Ukraine – and it connects citizens
across the nation and beyond, including those at the country’s most precarious,
threatened edges."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
