The russians have destroyed and damaged at least 27 libraries

As of May 13, russian troops in Ukraine have destroyed or damaged 27 libraries. This was announced by Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy Larysa Petasyuk during a round table on «Assistance to affected librarians and libraries due to the full-scale russian invasion of Ukraine.»

«We are convinced that this is not all the information, so together with the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and the Ukrainian Book Institute, we are working directly with volunteers to collect video and photo documentation of these damages and reveal facts that are currently unknown», – said the deputy minister.

She noted that the National Council is developing a National Program for the Restoration of Ukraine, which will include the restoration of libraries. The priority is to restore damaged libraries, then reorganize them. In addition, one of the tasks is the social protection of employees of book collections.

«We plan to join the initiative so that the cultural sphere and the library sphere will be subject to fundraising for the restoration. We see that a lot of money donated by donors and volunteers goes to community initiatives. This assistance needs to be directed correctly», –  Petasyuk addressed the round table participants.

She stressed that new and renewed libraries should be modern spaces acceptable to society.

According to a survey conducted by the Ukrainian Book Institute of 1,680 libraries, 719 libraries need to be replenished with modern Ukrainian literature, 248 collections need additional equipment, including Internet connection, multimedia materials and computer equipment; 83 libraries need renovations.

The round table was held with the assistance of Ukrinform.

Ukraine’s publishing industry has faced problems with insufficient funding and the inability to publish new books due to the full-scale russian invasion.

It is worth noting that as of March 13, the occupiers had damaged or destroyed at least 9 Ukrainian libraries.

Source: Ukrinform