By Dennis Sadowski
Huron woman showcases Ukraine’s postal response to war through exhibit
As Russia’s war on Ukraine nears the four-year mark, Susan Lohwater of Huron is shedding light on how Ukrainians are responding through stamps and mail.
Lohwater, 74, has developed an exhibit that showcases some of the stamps Ukrposhta, Ukraine’s postal agency, has issued since 2022 that illustrate the heroic response by first responders, the bravery of military forces, mine-sniffing dogs, destroyed buildings and the impact on civilians.
It was a stamp released soon after the war started showing a Ukrainian soldier standing on an island facing a Russian naval vessel with the middle finger of his right hand extended that first grabbed Lohwater’s attention.
“I remember these stamps with the finger. I remember being shocked by them how amazing they were. They are very uplifting for Ukrainians,” she said.
Then a couple of months later came a semi-postal stamp honoring the mine-sniffing dog Patron, a Jack Russell terrier who rose to legendary status for his work in the early days of the war. The cost of the stamp includes the normal postage fee and an additional fee to fund the war effort. That’s when Lohwater decided to add stamps related to the war from Ukraine for her collection.
Titled “Reactions to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in 2022,” her exhibit appeared at the Black River Stamp Club’s annual show on Nov. 22 and received a gold medal from judges at the Cuy-Lorpex 2025 in Rocky River on Oct. 24.
It is Lohwater’s first exhibit. Bill Ullom, one of the judges and a member of the prestigious Garfield-Perry Stamp Club in Cleveland, said the story Lohwater tells through stamps and covers was “amazing.”
“She’s done a great job,” Ullom told Garfield-Perry members at the club’s Nov. 6 meeting. “For a first-time exhibit, it’s very well done.”
The exhibit explores how Ukraine has used stamps to build resistance to the Russian attacks and to inspire Ukrainians to stay focused on protecting their country. The stamps, in a way, Lohwater said, also serve to educate others about the war’s impact on the central European nation.
She pointed to a first day cover in the exhibit for a stamp issued on Dec. 6, 2024, for St. Nicholas Day. The stamp shows a boy on the left writing a letter to St. Nick and the popular saint at right seated near a warm fireplace reading letters sent by children. The cachet, or envelope art, shows a dove carrying a letter in its beak.
Text on the back developed by Ukrposhta explains that traditionally such a letter would tell of a child’s good deeds and include a request for toys or sweets. Since the war, however, the text continues, children “write about their painful experiences and ask for not just gifts, but for: ‘superpowers for the Armed Forces of Ukraine,’ ‘level 1000 armor,’ ‘a supply of weapons,’ ‘a warm winter’ for Ukrainian defenders and, most importantly, ‘that everyone comes back alive.'”
For Lohwater, who began collecting in 1970, the stamps were a natural attraction because she taught English as a second language at the in Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in Ukraine in 1993. She also has visited Russia several times, the first in 1970 with her father.
Lohwater is a retired professor of English as a second language at Cuyahoga Community College.
She noted that some of Ukraine’s stamps are humorous while others include words such as “free,” “unbreakable” and “invincible,” indicating the country’s resolve in the face of an unjust war that has claimed thousands of lives on both sides with no end in sight.
“They tell about all the different actions of society are helping,” Lohwater said. “It’s very positive somehow in this awful situation. I don’t know how they can do it.”
Dennis Sadowski can be reached at sadowski.dennis@gmail.com.
