Four years of Russia’s full-scale invasion: Facts and figures

Over 12 long years of war, Ukraine has suffered irreparable losses. The war has cut short hundreds of thousands of lives, scorched the land, and left hundreds of cities and towns under occupation. At an enormous cost, Ukrainians have created a truly independent cultural space, built a strong book market, strengthened the presence of the Ukrainian language in the media, and expanded cultural infrastructure that has begun to reach even small villages.

Had Russia not annexed Crimea and occupied Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, book chains such as KSD would likely have expanded to around one hundred bookstores long ago. We would not have lost so many libraries. How long would it have taken for bookstores to start selling and for readers to start buying Ukrainian books? How long would it have taken to send Soviet propaganda from library collections to the waste paper bin? The full-scale invasion accelerated the choice for many who were hesitant, and the Russians began to more actively destroy everything related to Ukrainian culture, not only in the occupied territories, but throughout Ukraine.

Throughout this time, we have documented the losses: the people who were shaping the future of Ukrainian literature and publishing, the attempts to destroy bookstores and libraries, and the inhumane conditions Ukrainian publishers and printing houses have endured. Yet the true scale of these events becomes clear not through news headlines but through the facts. We have gathered them here for you — and we invite you to share them with your colleagues abroad via the English-language version of Chytomo.

According to the creators of the Unwritten initiative, 289 people involved in literature have died during the war.

Russia has killed 342 cultural figures, according to data from the Ministry of Culture. According to data from the Institute of Mass Information, 125 journalists have been killed and 26 are being held captive. According to Reporters Without Borders, 175 journalists have been affected by the war.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture reports that in the four years 858 libraries, 1,685 cultural heritage sites, and 2,483 cultural infrastructure facilities have been damaged or destroyed. As noted by Oleh Serbin, Director of the Yaroslav the Wise National Library of Ukraine, as of 2025, five million books in the library’s collection had been destroyed. In 2024, Taras Kremin, then the State Language Protection Commissioner, stated that more than 200 million books had been lost.

The following bookstores were damaged during the full-scale invasion: Knyholand in Kyiv and Kharkiv, KSD (Kharkiv), Plekai (Kyiv), Book.ua (Kyiv), and Readeat (Kyiv).

Russia struck the Faktor-Druk printing house (it is completely restored now, with seven employees killed, and 100,000 books destroyed), damaged Gurov&Company, Budynok Druku, Triada-Pak, the From A to Z printing house (Kharkiv), the location of the Kyiv printing house “Master of Books” and a printing house in Dnipro.

During the full-scale invasion, the premises of Ranok, Booksha, Teza, Zhorzh, ACCA, Folio, Blym-Blym, Zhupansky, Vikhola, Molfar, Pegas, Chas Maystriv, Parasolia, Osnova group, 4mamas, Їzhak publishing and the office and warehouse of the Ukrainsky Priorytet publishing house burned down.

Unfortunately, Iryna Chornenka, an employee of the Bogdan publishing house, was killed as a result of a Russian missile attack on Ternopil.

Like soldiers on the front lines or as a consequence of the war, literature distributor Valentyn Dobry, bookseller Vasyl Doroshenko, Kunsht magazine journalist Eugene Osievsky, translators Serhiy Zaikovsky, Ilya Miedviediev, Oleksiy Savkevych, and Yevhen Hulevych, along with writer and photographer Yuriy Kostyshyn, poets Mykhailo Mykus, Maksym Kryvtsov, Oleksandr Podvyshenyi, Artem Dovhopolyi, Myroslav Herasymovych, Serhiy Skald, Yuriy Ruf, Roman Sobechko, Taras Illia, Oleksiy Ivakin, Hlib Babich, Oleksiy Bezpaltsev, Hennadiy Havryliv, Volodymyr Volikov, slammer Serhiy Naumenko, writers Vasyl Palamarchuk, Maksym Petrenko, Ihor Mysiak, Yuriy Kanyuk, Ihor Teriokhin, Yevhen Rolduhin died. Unfortunately, this list is far from being complete. During the war, artists and military personnel Mykola Leonovych, Oleksandr Hoshylyk, and Borys Humenyuk went missing.

During the full-scale invasion, the logistics center of the Ranok publishing house, the warehouse of the Smaki publishing house, and the warehouse of the Vivat publishing house were damaged. Additionally, a pallet of books burned at a private transport company (books by Ababahalamaha Publishing House, BookChef, and KSD), and a pallet of new books by Krokus burned at the Nova Poshta postal terminal.

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