The Polish postal service did not release official stamps featuring Ukraine's Zelenskiy
Last updated on: 22 June,2022 07:00 pm
The Polish postal service did not release official stamps featuring Ukraine's Zelenskiy
(Reuters) The Polish Post Office has not released an official stamp emblazoned with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, despite images of such stamps circulating online. A local councilor in Krakow said on Facebook that he designed the stamps and the sale of the stamps would go toward humanitarian aid in Ukraine.
One user said on Facebook: “#Zelensky stamp issued in Poland sold ‘within an hour.’ The Polish postal service has issued 99 sets of postage stamps with President Volodymyr Zelensky’s portrait, selling them for around $1,200 for a set, Ukraine’s postal service Ukrposhta said” ( here ).
Another user said: “The Polish Post (Poczta Polska) issued a stamp with the image of Zelensky. This is the only stamp in the world with the image of the current head of state. Now it costs 500 PLN. Proceeds from the sale will be used to purchase humanitarian aid for [Ukraine]” (here).
Other examples of the claim online can be found ( here ), ( here ), ( here ) and ( here ).
Although the stamps exist, they were not released by the Polish postal service, a spokesperson for the country’s postal service (Poczta Polska) told Reuters.
“Poczta Polska does not sell these stamps, they are the property of the ordering customer,” they said.
It is possible to create private stamps designed by a customer via the post office website ( here ).
“The stamp with the image of President W. Zelenskiy was ordered by the customer according to “My Stamp” commercial service regulations,” they added.
The Twitter account for the Polish Post Office also tweeted to confirm that no such official stamps were distributed ( here ).
A search through the Polish postal service’s social media channels (@PocztaPolska) did not find any posts advertising the stamps (www.facebook.com/pocztapolska ), ( twitter.com/PocztaPolska ).
A councilor in Krakow, Poland, Lukasz Wantuch, said on Facebook on May 11 that he designed the stamps. Wantuch said that the sale of the stamps would be go toward humanitarian aid in Ukraine ( here ).
VERDICT
Missing context. The Polish Post Office did not release official stamps featuring Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. A councilor in Krakow said on Facebook that he created the stamps, and that their sale would go toward humanitarian aid to Ukraine.