The Central Post Office () in

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, is located in

Maidan Nezalezhnosti Maidan Nezalezhnosti (, ) or Independence Square is the central town square of Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. One of the city's main squares, it is located on Khreshchatyk Street in the Shevchenko Raion. The square contains the iconic Ind ...

. It houses

Ukrposhta The Public Joint-stock company, JSC Ukrainian Postal Service or Ukrposhta () is the national postal service of Ukraine. It is a public company with 100% state ownership due to its strategic importance. From 1999–2015 it was a unitary enterpris ...

, Ukraine's national postal service, and includes offices and a 24-hour

internet café An Internet café, also known as a cybercafé, is a Coffeehouse, café (or a convenience store or a fully dedicated Internet access business) that provides the use of computers with high bandwidth Internet access on the payment of a fee. Usage ...

on the upper floors. The building was completed in 1958, and underwent a renovation during the 1990s.

History

Construction for a new post office began in 1914, was halted by

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and was eventually completed in 1941. It was deliberately destroyed later that year by Soviet forces in an explosion during the , once

Nazi forces The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previou ...

had entered the city following the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

's retreat. The current building was built between 1952 and 1958. On 2 August 1989, during heavy rainfall, the

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

of the building collapsed, killing 13 people. At the time of the collapse, the building had been undergoing reconstruction. During the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, although many Ukrposhta employees either moved to safer areas in

Western Ukraine Western Ukraine or West Ukraine (, ) refers to the western territories of Ukraine. There is no universally accepted definition of the territory's boundaries, but the contemporary Ukrainian administrative regions ( oblasts) of Chernivtsi, I ...

or left the country entirely, the post office remained operational. Ukrposhta also released a number of popular stamps, highlighting events such as the sinking of the ''Moskva'', the 2022 Crimean Bridge Bombing, and the

liberation of Kherson On 11 November 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated and recaptured the city of Kherson and other areas of the Kherson Oblast and parts of the Mykolaiv Oblast on the Right-bank Ukraine, right bank of the Dnieper, Dnipro River from Russi ...

, leading people to queue up for hours outside the post office.

Building

The seven-story brick building has concrete floors and a tin roof. It is L-shaped, with its wings being about in length. The wing located along

Khreshchatyk Khreshchatyk (, ) is the main street of Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. The street is long, and runs in a northeast-southwest direction from European Square (Kyiv), European Square through the Maidan Nezalezhnosti, Maidan to Bessarabska Sq ...

has a slight curvature. The façade includes

Ukrainian Baroque Ukrainian Baroque (), also known as Cossack Baroque () or Mazepa Baroque, is an style (visual arts), artistic style that was widespread in Ukraine in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was the result of a combination of local traditions and Europea ...

elements. The building used to have a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

, but it does no longer. White marble tiles were added to the central hall during a renovation in the 1990s. On the first floor, the frames for the doors and windows are made of dark granite.

Gallery

Notes

References

{{khreshchatyk Buildings and structures completed in 1958 Buildings and structures in Kyiv Maidan Nezalezhnosti Post office buildings