Ukraine launches 500,000 U.S. dollars fundraising campaign to support small publishers affected by war

Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture, KSE Foundation, the Ukrainian Book Institute, and the International Book Arsenal Festival have launched a fundraising campaign seeking 500,000 U.S. dollars to support small Ukrainian publishers affected by Russia’s war.

The Small Publishers Support Program aims to provide grants to at least 20 publishers. Applications for the first round are expected to open in November 2026. According to the Culture Ministry, the program is aimed at small publishers that release up to 20 new titles annually.

The initiative follows a summer in which Russian attacks destroyed more than 13 million newly printed Ukrainian books in printing facilities and warehouses. According to the Culture Ministry, direct losses to Ukraine’s book sector from the attacks reached at least 1.75 billion hryvnias (about 39 million U.S. dollars).

Under the current program design, applicants must be registered in Ukraine as a legal entity or sole proprietor and listed in the State Register of Publishers, Manufacturers and Distributors of Publishing Products. They must have at least 12 months of publishing activity, and their annual income for the previous calendar year must not exceed 10 million hryvnias.

Publishers do not need to have suffered direct physical damage in a Russian attack to apply. Those affected by wartime disruptions to sales, logistics, production, or access to working capital may also be considered.

Small publishers are particularly vulnerable to such disruptions because losing a single print run can eliminate the working capital needed to produce the next book. Disrupted deliveries can also delay sales revenue, while the closure of a publishing house can leave authors without a route to readers and remove parts of its catalog from circulation.

Individual grants will reach up to 25,000 U.S. dollars, with at least 70% of each grant allocated directly to book production. The program will not require mandatory co-financing, and a single grant may cover several titles by the same publisher.

Funding may be used to replace stock destroyed or substantially damaged in attacks, reprint titles with demonstrated demand, or publish new production-ready books. A limited share may also cover distribution, fulfillment, temporary external storage, and final pre-press preparation.

“Supporting small publishers is especially important, as they are often the first to discover new names, tackle vital topics, and create diversity in Ukrainian literature,” Tetiana Berezhna, vice prime minister for humanitarian policy of Ukraine and minister of culture of Ukraine, said. Berezhna said the funding would allow publishers to continue working, print new books, and restore print runs lost in Russian attacks.

As reported earlier, a Russian missile-and-drone attack on Kyiv overnight on July 18-19 devastated the Konvi printing facility, where approximately 250,000 school textbooks were lost and unfinished print runs totaling nearly 350,000 copies were damaged. The office of the newly established Mison publishing house was also destroyed.

On Aug. 1, a Russian attack caused a large fire at the RNK-Ranok logistics center in Kharkiv, destroying around 8 million books, including approximately 600,000 school textbooks. By early August, books damaged or destroyed in Russian attacks that summer amounted to nearly one-third of Ukraine’s entire 2025 book print run.

Chytomo has also launched its “Reading to Endure” campaign to support publishers affected by Russian attacks. The initiative highlights books that remain available in bookstores and online, encouraging readers to support affected publishers through purchases. The campaign began with #knygolove, which lost more than 200,000 copies and reported 25 million hryvnias, or 561,800 U.S. dollars, in losses after a Russian missile attack destroyed a warehouse storing its books in July.

The grant program follows other support measures announced after the summer attacks on publishing infrastructure. As reported earlier, the Culture Ministry said following the Aug. 28 attack that it planned to restore state-funded library acquisitions and develop war-risk insurance for finished print runs.

The ministry is also working on partial compensation for bookstore rent costs, expanding the state-funded yeKnyha voucher program to additional groups of readers, including parents of newborns, and improving access to preferential loans for businesses in the book sector together with the Economy Ministry.

Photo: Tetiana Berezhna / Facebook, Ministry of Culture