Some media resources have spread the information that the new joint stamp marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine from fascist invaders would be released in the amended version. For some reason, the original sketch lost the mention of Ukraine. Thus, in the final version of the stamp only Belarus and Russia will appear. Supposedly, the changes were made at the request of the Ukrainian postal operator “Ukrposhta”.
The new stamp is to be released on the 18 of April. As noted Ivan Lukin, designer who worked on the release, the publication had been planned long before the events in Kiev and had been conceived as joint project between Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. The main image had been designed in the Russian publishing center, after what two other countries had to prepare the same issue.
The Ministry of Communication and Informatization of Belarus explained the exact reason, why the mention of Ukraine disappeared from the stamp. It turned out that the changes were initiated by Ukrainian philatelists, who filled an application to the national postal operator “Ukrposhta”.
“We have been preparing to this date for over a year. The Russian publishing and shopping center “Marka” proposed to three fraternal republics to celebrate the date in 2014 by issuing a joint souvenir sheet with a single design. The tripartite agreement and the sketches were prepared. But later, on 14 of March, our Russian colleagues received a letter from the CEO of “Ukrposhta”, where the Ukrainian part expressed its gratitude for the cooperation, but given the appeal of Ukrainian philatelists, the post office decided to suspend the preparation of the joint stamps on the theme of the 70th anniversary of liberation”.
Given the refusal of the Ukrainian side and the forthcoming date of the joint stamp’s input into circulation, it was decided to remove the reference to Ukraine from the souvenir sheet. It will be issued only in Russia and Belarus.
Perhaps, immediately after the release the new stamp will become a curious specimen in philatelic collections because of the history of its publication.(Source-stampnews.com)
