Russian Attacks Destroy 1.5 Million Books in July

Since the beginning of July, Russian attacks have destroyed more than 1.5 million books in Ukraine, according to Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the Ukrainian President's Office. He stated that Russian missiles have demolished printing houses, burned down publishers' warehouses, and destroyed hundreds of thousands of textbooks intended for Ukrainian schoolchildren before the new school year.

Tetiana Berezhna, Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture, noted that publishers have lost hundreds of millions of hryvnias due to the systematic attacks. Budanov described the strikes as a deliberate continuation of the cultural genocide that Moscow has waged against Ukraine for centuries. He drew parallels with the 1863 Valuev Circular, which banned publication of most books in Ukrainian, and the 1876 Ems Ukaz, which nearly destroyed Ukrainian literature.

Berezhna said that affected printing houses can receive state grants of up to UAH 16 million (US$357,000) for rebuilding. Publishers can also claim up to UAH 30 million (US$670,000) in compensation under a war risk insurance program. The government is expanding the e-Book program for purchasing Ukrainian books, introducing subsidies for bookshops to cover rent, and updating the program for replenishing public library collections.

In early July, Russian missiles struck the central warehouse of the BookChef publishing house's logistics partner, destroying about 800,000 books. A partner printing house of Ranok publishers was also affected. Mega-poligraf, which produces textbooks for the new school year, halted operations due to damaged equipment and stocks. A strike on Kyiv on July 19 destroyed a warehouse of the knigolove publishing house holding 250,000 books. Offices and premises of several other publishers, including arc.ua, Mison, and Konvi, were damaged or burned. On the night of July 16-17, the Russian attack on Sumy damaged the regional academic library.