A special cancellation ceremony was held at Minsk City Hall to launch the stamps.

Designed by artist Marina Vitkovskaya, the series consists of four souvenir blocks of four stamps each. 

The logo, slogan and pictograms of different kinds of sports of the Games, scheduled to take place between June 21 and 30, have been depicted on the stamps.

"The first-day-of-issue cancellation ceremony for the second European Games stamps is a great event for the Organising Committee and all the people involved in the organisation of the Games," Minsk 2019 chief executive George Katulin said. 

"We consider them not only as a postal payment tool but primarily as a means to advertise the multi-sport event. 

"Very soon these stamps will reach all corners of Europe, heralding the start of the big sport event in Minsk in June."

Attending the event was Belarus' Deputy Sport and Tourism Minister Alexander Baraulya and First Deputy Minister of Communications and Informatization Dmitry Shedko 

Star of the event, however, was European Games mascot Lesik the Baby Fox, who sent the first invitations with the new stamps to the National Olympic Committees of the participating countries.

"We have tried to make the stamps affordable to any person who wants to keep a reminder of the second European Games," Shedko said.  

"Each stamp has a circulation of 120,000 copies, which is a serious amount for Belarus. 

"Their release specially for the Games continues the tradition, when important events in the life of the country are marked with stamps. 

"Of course, we want to make a contribution to the upcoming sports festival. 

"Each stamp is a piece of art created by our designers."