Ukrposhta employees wear bulletproof vests, helmets while going to dangerous areas of Donetsk region

Employees of Ukrposhta, Ukraine's national postal operator, wear bulletproof vests and helmets and use armored vehicles to travel to dangerous areas of the Donetsk region near the front line.

Maksym Sutkovsyi, director of Ukrposhta in the Donetsk region, told this to an Ukrinform correspondent over the phone.

"I have people [employees] who use armored vehicles and wear helmets and bulletproof vests. We come to all the settlements, even the small ones, maybe once a week. People know when we are coming and they wait for us. We also deliver pensions and social payments, it is our duty, because we also go to places where there are no bank branches anymore," said the director.

He reminded that among Ukrposhta's 16 mobile post offices, there are two armored vehicles with everything to serve the public.

"There are several reasons why we close post offices. These are when we do not have staff, when the security component does not allow us to work, and when the local authorities say, for security reasons, ‘That's it, we are not working’. Then we can close either post offices or service areas," Sutkovskyi explained.

According to him, Ukrposhta employees recently drove armored cars to Chasiv Yar and Siversk, but now mandatory evacuation has been announced in Chasiv Yar, and the local administration cannot provide security in Siversk. "That is why we decided not to provide services in these settlements. In March we stopped going to Chasiv Yar and Siversk," added Sutkovskyi.

He reminded that there are 90 stationary and 16 mobile Ukrposhta post offices in the Donetsk region controlled by the Ukrainian government. Prior to the full-scale war, there were more than 210 post offices in the region.

As reported, the Donetsk region is under constant Russian shelling. Almost every day the enemy kills and injures civilians, destroys houses, energy and various infrastructure facilities.

The region has the longest frontline, which is about 300 kilometers.

Nearly 472,000 people are currently living in the Donetsk region.