Russian shelling damages offices and warehouses of some 20 Ukrainian publishing houses

The offices and warehouses of some 20 Ukrainian publishing houses have been damaged in shelling of Ukrainian cities by russian forces. This according to the results of a survey held by the Chytomo projects «How are Ukrainian publishers working during war».

The publishers are: Ranok, BOOKSHA, Teza, Zhorzh, ACAA, Folio, Blym-Blym, Zhupansky Publishing House, Vikhola, Molfar, PEGAS, Chas Maistriv, Parasoli, Osnova, 4 mamas and others – 22% of surveyed publishers.  

«Our offices and main warehouses are located in Kharkiv, so we as a business want to be able to move all this to a safe location so that we can ship the orders that we have», – Osnova and 4mamas said. 

Most of the destroyed premises are in Kharkiv. 78% of those surveyed say that their offices have not been damaged. 

«We are updating the information on available books. Unfortunately, the selection is somewhat limited because we are shopping orders from our warehouses that are in safe territories. The main warehouse in Kharkiv remains blocked due to constant shelling by the russian occupiers», – Ranok publishers said about the situation. 

Yakaboo moved a million Ukrainian books from their warehouse near Kyiv to western Ukraine. IST Publishing, ЇZHAK and ACCA need to evacuate their books from Kyiv to Kharkiv. 

«We can’t sell books because the rented warehouse is closed and none of our staff are in Kyiv». – said KLIO Publishing House. 

The complete results of the survey on how the book publishing industry has been affected by the war can be found on the website of the Chytomo culture and publishing project.

The survey was held on March 26 – April 8, 2022. 81 publishing houses from around Ukraine participated.  

Unisoft, one of the largest printers in Ukraine, was partially damaged as a result of the russian invasion of Kharkiv. 

Russian occupiers also damaged the Writers Building in Irpin and the Slovo Building in Kharkiv.