Recently, Crimean collaborators decided to release yet another “stream of optimism” regarding the operations of the illicit “Post of Crimea” – a key logistical hub for the aggressor, serving not only the occupied peninsula but also the occupied districts of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
We have previously informed various UN bodies, including the Working Group on Business and Human Rights, that “Post of Crimea” performs functions typically associated with an occupying “administration,” including the financing of mercenaries and terrorists.
Following our appeals, the illicit activities of entities such as “Post of Crimea” were officially acknowledged by the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries in its Report A/80/329. Furthermore, in February, Ukraine extended its sanctions against this aggressor entity, which operates under the “departmental subordination of the ministry of digital development, communications and mass media” of Russia.
Previously, “Post of Crimea” officials grudgingly admitted to “isolated issues” within their operations, attempting to attribute them to the “suspension of air travel to Crimea” since 2022, a development that, they claimed, forced the entity to shift all its transport operations to overland routes.
However, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the occupiers to conceal the true state of affairs on the ground. Late last year, we reported that “local branches” of “Post of Crimea” across the peninsula were closing down, primarily due to a “staff shortage” caused by the “fantastic salaries” paid to postal workers, which amount to no more than 20 thousand rubles per month. Meanwhile, in Crimean villages, instances were reported where “officials” demanded that residents “subscribe more” to the occupiers’ printed propaganda, “collect their pensions at the post office,” and pay their “utility bills” at the same location—all in an effort to “stabilize the post office’s financial situation.”
Now, however, the sham “director” of this entity, collaborator Elena Prin’, has claimed that the “Post of Crimea” network allegedly comprises “555 branches”; notably, in 2024, the occupiers seized approximately 550 “Ukrposhta” branches across the peninsula.
For years, this process of downsizing was masked by the creation of “mobile” and “modular branches”; yet Prin’ has now been forced to admit that, of the aforementioned number of “branches,” more than 50 are effectively non-operational, though they are not being officially closed down, apparently to avoid “skewing the statistics.”
Prin’s statement that the “average staff salary for 2025” allegedly stood at around 37 thousand rubles, a figure that bears no resemblance to reality, sparked particular sarcasm across Crimean social networks. The occupiers are concealing the actual “wages” of postal workers by systematically shifting them to part-time employment.
