Around 850,000 books destroyed or damaged overnight as Russian attack hits Ukraine’s publishing infrastructure

A Russian missile-and-drone attack on Kyiv overnight on July 18–19 completely destroyed a warehouse belonging to the Ukrainian publishing house #knygolove, along with thousands of books stored there.

The same attack destroyed the office of the newly established Mison publishing house, damaged the office of Arc.ua publishing house and devastated the Konvi printing facility. No employees of the affected publishers or printing facility were injured.

According to Ukraine’s Air Force, Russia launched 166 aerial weapons during the combined attack — 41 missiles and 125 drones of various types. Kyiv was the principal target. Ukrainian air defenses intercepted or suppressed 126 targets, including 18 missiles and 108 drones. Strikes were recorded at 20 locations.

Nearly 250,000 #knygolove books destroyed

#knygolove co-founder Svitlana Paveletska reported the destruction.

“This is extremely painful and difficult. But the greatest relief is that people’s lives were spared,” Paveletska wrote.

According to her, the destroyed books will not reach bookstore shelves in the near future, but the publishing house intends to rebuild. She asked readers to be understanding about possible delays and encouraged them to support one another and Ukrainian businesses.

“This represents an enormous amount of work by the entire team — authors, editors, book layout designers, designers, and everyone involved,” Paveletska added.

#knygolove also confirmed the destruction of the warehouse on its Facebook page.

“Russia is once again proving that it is waging war not only against people, but also against Ukrainian culture, education, and our future,” the publisher said. No employees were injured. The team is already working to restore its operations.

Konvi printing facility devastated

A Russian ballistic missile struck the Konvi printing facility, leaving its production halls without a roof. Printing and bookbinding equipment was destroyed or flooded, while the company’s office premises burned down, according to Konvi commercial director Viktoriia Haidai. No employees were injured.

Approximately 250,000 ninth-grade textbooks were lost. Unfinished print runs with a combined circulation of nearly 350,000 copies were also damaged.

Photo: Viktoriia Haidai/Facebook

The affected publications included books produced for Ranok, Hramota, Litera LTD, Linguist, #knygolove, Laboratoria, Artbooks, Assa, Kalamar, Athena, Aston, BookChef, Mison, Vyshcha Shkola, Medytsyna, Apriori and other Ukrainian publishers.

Konvi said the attack threatened the production of textbooks ahead of the beginning of the new school year.

“They are waging war against our children’s knowledge and Ukrainian culture,” representatives of the printing facility said.

Konvi is a Kyiv-based full-cycle printing company that produces books, school textbooks, magazines, catalogs and other printed materials.

Mison office completely destroyed

The attack also completely destroyed Mison’s Kyiv office, including the workspaces where the publisher’s team had been preparing its first books and developing future projects.

The destruction occurred one day before the publisher planned to celebrate the release of its first book, Olena Skulovatova’s “Museum of Family Stories”, on July 20.

Photo: Mison.publishing/Instagram

The team has not yet been able to access the premises and therefore does not know whether the book’s print run survived. No Mison employees were injured.

The publication schedule for Mison’s second book, Uliana Bilaniuk’s “My Name Is Mriia”, also remains uncertain. The publisher had expected to receive the printed copies during the week following the attack.

Mison has asked readers to support the publisher and its authors by ordering the books. If the print run of “Museum of Family Stories” survived, copies will be sent once the team regains access to the premises. If it was destroyed, proceeds from the orders will support a new print run.

Readers can contact Mison through its official Instagram and Facebook pages. The publisher has also shared information about a fundraiser to restore the affected print runs.

“We believe this is not the final chapter in our story. There are many more books ahead that we will publish,” the Mison team said.

Arc.ua office damaged

The Kyiv office of the Arc.ua publishing house was also damaged during the attack. No members of its team were injured.

Photo: Ulana Suprun’s Facebook page

Arc.ua is a publishing house and civil society organization founded in 2019 by Ulana Suprun (a Ukrainian American physician and civic activist who moved from the United States to Ukraine in November 2013 and served as Ukraine’s acting health minister from August 2016 to August 2019), Volodymyr Tykhyi and Stanislav Greshchyshyn. It specializes in popular nonfiction on medicine, history, sociology and cultural studies.

As reported earlier, Russia’s July 2 attack on Kyiv damaged the Megapolihraf printing house, which was producing books and textbooks for Ranok, and destroyed approximately 800,000 BookChef books at a warehouse operated by the publisher’s logistics partner, Denka Logistics.

During another Russian missile-and-drone attack overnight on May 13–14, a Ranok logistics center and a warehouse belonging to its affiliated publisher One More Page were damaged, disrupting book distribution and delaying online orders.

Main image: #knygolove