Ukrposhta, Ukraine's state postal service, continues to deliver pensions, food, medicine and utility payments to isolated and elderly Ukrainians living near the front lines, despite Russia deliberately targeting postal staff and infrastructure with drone strikes. Chief executive Igor Smelyansky must decide daily which villages are too dangerous to reach, balancing the risk to his workers' lives against the harm caused to vulnerable communities left without supplies if deliveries are cancelled.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, hundreds of Ukrposhta branches and vehicles have been struck and more than 50 staff have died on the frontline or during their rounds, according to the organisation. Moscow denies targeting civilians and has claimed such strikes are retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian online retailers, but Smelyansky insists the targeting of his staff is deliberate, aimed at undermining Ukrainian resilience. The BBC accompanied postmistress Kateryna Marynych near Zaporizhzhia, where she serves elderly residents from her van after her previous post office in Lukasheve was destroyed by a Russian drone in March.