Russian attacks destroyed more than 1.1 million school textbooks planned for 2026

More than 1.1 million school textbooks have been destroyed in Russian attacks on Ukrainian publishers and printing facilities. The figure does not yet reflect any additional textbook losses resulting from the Aug. 16 Russian attack on the Petrivka book market in Kyiv’s Pochaína district, as affected publishers are still assessing the damage. Ukraine plans to print a total of 13.5 million textbooks for schoolchildren in 2026, Education and Science Minister Andrii Butenko said.

The government is developing support mechanisms for publishers whose production and logistics facilities have been damaged by Russian strikes. The measures are intended to help restore production and the lost textbook print runs.

“We are already working on support mechanisms so that they can resume production and children can receive the textbooks they need as soon as possible,” Butenko wrote.

The recovery of the lost print runs was discussed at a meeting involving the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Education, Science and Innovation, the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories, the Institute of Education Content Modernization, representatives of publishing houses, Ukrposhta, and Nova Poshta.

According to the Ministry of Education and Science, 2.3 million textbooks planned for this year have already been delivered to educational institutions, while another 3.7 million are in transit. If some printed textbooks cannot be delivered on time, students will be able to use electronic versions.

A significant share of the print runs was lost in Russian attacks on publishing and printing facilities in Kharkiv and Kyiv. Some textbooks for fourth- and ninth-grade students will be delivered at least two months late because of Russian attacks on printing and logistics facilities.

Among the most heavily affected were individual print runs of textbooks in English, biology, geography, civic education and law, mathematics, and Ukrainian literature. Depending on the textbook, between 50% and 100% of the print run was lost. The affected books were published by Aston, Hramota, Linguist, Litera, and Ranok.

Several Ukrainian publishing and printing facilities were damaged in Russian attacks in 2026. During a missile-and-drone attack on Kyiv overnight on July 18–19, the Konvi printing facility was devastated. The same attack completely destroyed a warehouse belonging to #knygolove, destroyed the office of the newly established Mison publishing house, and damaged the office of Arc.ua.

Earlier, a Russian attack on Kyiv on July 2 destroyed around 800,000 BookChef books stored at a warehouse operated by the publisher’s logistics partner. 

A combined Russian drone-and-missile strike overnight on May 13–14 also damaged one of Ranok’s logistics centers and a warehouse belonging to its affiliate One More Page. The damage disrupted book distribution and delayed online orders.

Another Russian attack on Kyiv on May 24 damaged the offices of Ranok and Veselka publishing houses. 

Russian attacks have repeatedly damaged Ukrainian publishing and printing infrastructure since the start of the full-scale invasion. In May 2024, a Russian strike on the Factor Druk printing house in Kharkiv destroyed 68,500 copies of a German-language textbook for seventh-grade students. Ranok later reprinted the lost copies so they could still be supplied to schools. 

The May 2024 strike on Factor Druk also killed seven employees and severely damaged one of Ukraine’s largest printing facilities. Before the attack, the printing complex produced around 40% of Ukraine’s school textbooks. 

In 2024, educational and methodological publications were the largest category of books produced in Ukraine, with 4,415 titles and a combined print run of 22.4 million copies. In 2025, the country’s largest individual print run was Ranok’s eighth-grade physics textbook, at 416,100 copies.

As reported earlier, textbook distribution had already faced difficulties before the latest attacks. In September 2025, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Education, Science and Innovation deemed the Ministry of Education and Science’s work on textbook delivery for the 2025–2026 academic year unsatisfactory. As of Sept. 15, schools had received 81.7% of the planned textbooks, while eighth-grade students had not received their textbooks at all. In January 2026, the ministry fined 12 publishers a combined nearly 1.9 million hryvnias for delays in textbook deliveries.

Main image: Viktor Akimov’s Facebook page