A Russian strike on a logistics center in Kharkiv destroyed 8 million Ukrainian books, including school textbooks, on August 1, according to Viktor Kruglov, general director of the Ranok publishing house.
The strike hit Ranok's logistics center and the distribution center of the KnyhoLend bookstore chain. Kruglov announced the toll on Monday. Firefighters have contained the blaze, but as of August 3 it had not been fully extinguished.
Kruglov said on Facebook that this marked the biggest loss of book infrastructure in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war. He compared the Russian actions to crimes committed by the Third Reich, which staged mass public book burnings, and said Hitler would have envied the scale of destruction.
Ranok has restored its website using a backup warehouse, though its available stock remains limited. The publisher urged supporters to buy paper and electronic books and to place pre-orders for upcoming titles.
Wider damage to publishing industry
The Kharkiv strike follows other attacks on Ukraine's book industry. On July 23, Culture Minister Tetiana Berezhna said Russian attacks destroyed more than 1.5 million books and textbooks from Ukrainian publishers in July alone.
Berezhna said the Konvi Plus printing house and the publishers Mison.Publishing and Knyholav suffered major damage. She said Konvi Plus lost more than 600,000 finished books and textbooks along with roughly 350,000 copies still in production.
On July 27, Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi ordered officials to prepare a mechanism for state support to the book publishing industry. Koretskyi said supporting publishers was essential for restoring their operations and replenishing stock at public libraries.
