Video: Delivering Mail on Ukraine’s Front Line

Larysa Navrotska is a part of a quiet, however courageous military of postal employees connecting distant Ukrainian communities near the battlefield with the skin world. Working for the nationwide postal service in jap Ukraine usually means coming into harmful frontline areas the place drones dominate and trigger the overwhelming majority of this conflict’s casualties. Theirs is a harmful job. In 4 years of conflict, Russian assaults have broken or fully destroyed greater than 500 Ukrainian publish workplaces. Ukrposhta says supply vans like Larysa’s are additionally focused as a result of they carry issues resembling drone components to frontline troops. The Russian Ministry of Protection didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Not less than 9 postal employees have been killed on the job. Larysa and her driver, Vitalii, sometimes serve roughly 6,500 folks every month. At this time, they’re visiting three villages. Their most loyal prospects are retirees awaiting their month-to-month verify. Larysa delivers extra than simply mail. She brings earnings and in addition groceries, medicines, the information and a well-known face to talk with for these residing in isolation. This hub in Larysa’s hometown is the final brick-and-mortar postal department on the highway to the entrance. When jobs have been scarce after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Larysa got here to this very publish workplace hoping to search out work. Now married and with a son, she’s remained in Vasylkivka, doing practically each postal job there may be — courier, clerk, cashier, and unofficially, the workplace cheerleader, maintaining morale. Many right here take satisfaction within the important service they’re offering, however additionally they need to be compensated for the dangers they take. And as we speak, they’ve the chance to make the purpose. Their boss, the top of Ukrposhta, has come for a go to. The conflict has additionally put a premium on meals supply in some villages. After receiving their pensions, some residents even give what little they’ve again to the postal employees to allow them to donate it to the conflict effort. It’s the group that has saved Larysa on the highway all these years.