19% of Ukrainian publishers are in danger due to the russian invasion

The Ukrainian Book Institute (UBI) has surveyed 188 Ukrainian publishers and collected information on their safety, status and needs.

According to UBI, 33 of publishers (18% of those surveyed) have lost their production capacity, 12 publishers (6%) still have some capacity. 

The ability to continue publishing also depends on the copyrights for books. 85% of those surveyed (159 publishers) were able to save the necessary archives and other items, while 10% (19 publishers) said they were unable to assess the state of their resources.  

More than 5% of publishers need help preserving their layouts and other copyrights. 

131 publishers (71%) still have full production capacity and 12 publishers (6%) don’t have information about their production capacity. 

Representatives of 152 publishers (81%) are relatively safe. Employees of 36 publishers (19%) are at varying degrees of risk: they are on the front or remain in areas with ongoing fighting.

More than half of the surveyed publishers (over 62%) need various assistance: financial to cover costs (32 publishers), to support foreign partners (24 publishers), grants to resume or continue operations (more than 61 publishers). 71 publishers, or 38% of participants in the publishing market of Ukraine, do not need help at all.

In March-April Chytomo conducted a survey of how Ukrainian publishers work during the war.

According to the results, 95.1% of publishers said that book sales fell dramatically during the first month of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As a result of shelling of Ukrainian cities by the russian military, some 20 offices and warehouses of Ukrainian publishers were damaged.

In late March, a survey was also done of the influence of the full-scale russian invasion on the creative industries in Ukraine.