Does anyone know how I can send a postcard to Russia and Belarus atm?

Since the war started, Australia Post has stopped its post service to Russia and Belarus. But I still get a few postcards need to send to these two countries. So what should I do now? Can I add a Via country on the bottom?

This is for sure not an official way, but I have heard, people from Iran send a postcard for example to Tel Aviv in Israel, by just writting Irland instead of Israel. The postcard then goes to Irland and the irish post remarks the mistake and sends it to Israel.
If it is a obvious russian town, you could try something similar. But there is no guarantee.

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I do not know how working this method is, but you can try to send it through an middleman. Find a friend in a country that can send letters to Belarus and Russia (for example, the Netherlands) and send letters to this friend. They will send your letter from their own country

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I send my cards from Indonesia, with 240 countries “blocked” by airmail :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:. But I have managed to send my cards to some of the countries that aren’t serviced by airmail by adding “via Singapore” (to my knowing Singapore is a hub in South East Asia). Gladly I’ve managed to send 2 cards to Germany, 1 to Finland and 1 to Brazil (1 month to European destinations, 2 months to Brazil). The rest I sent this way to Germany, Spain, France & Belgium, haven’t arrived (hopefully not lost)

This is obviously a “dirty” trick :joy: but worth trying if you want to give a try. Maybe send them “via Germany” with hope that German post office will forward them to Russia and Belarus. It’s all on you :relieved:

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Postcrossing stopped giving you addresses to countries that Australia Post say they are not sending to since the pandemic began.

You will not get an address to either of those countries and really not since late Feb/early March.

I looked at your account and I can see that you haven’t sent to either of those countries for some time.

Postcrossing monitors all the Postal Operators daily for changes and updates our Postal Monitor and selection criteria daily.

Do not add a Via country at the bottom because your postcard will most likely end up not being delivered. A lot of mail from Australia is still going via sea, though Postcrossing can see travel times improving as flights from here are increased.

Vicki
Postcrossing Team

Yeah, I know. I actually got some direct swap requests from Russia and Belarus. Guess I just need to stop accepting those requests for a while. But thanks for answering my questions.

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Are the cards to Belarus not travelling from Australia due to sanctions, or logistics? I am in New Zealand and from just before the conflict in Ukraine New Zealand Post was not able to send cards to Russia, which I put down to logistics. Cards to and from Belarus were travelling, although slowly which is normal. Currently New Zealand Post is able to send mail to Belarus. I’ve sent some off to direct swaps but they have yet to arrive so it will be interesting to see what happens there. From New Zealand to Belarus it’s around a month and a bit for travelling times.

I’m not an expert but mail should be exempt from being included in sanctions. It’s international law.

The attempt to send postcards to Russia has failed. Belarus seems ok by sending via Poland.

:thinking: why accept swaps with countries your mail service can’t deliver to?
Okay it might happen that we don’t realise, but once we do I think the only thing is to go back to that person and say sorry but I can’t send, and cancel or postpone the swap :woman_shrugging:t2:

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It’s the RR game. And the host assigned me the address from Rusia. They said I can send it after the war finish and the mail route reopen.

Australia Post are the only ones who can answer that question.