Ukrainians call for boycott of writers publishing books in russia despite the war

Writer Dariia Piskozub has called on Ukrainian publishers and cultural projects to stop collaborating with children’s writer Nataliia Shcherba, who refused to boycott the russian book market despite the russian-Ukrainian war. Piskozub wrote about this on her Facebook page.

She asked Shcherba to terminate contracts with russian publishers.

Nataliia Shcherba wrote: «Children are not to blame, we need to talk to them, motivate them and teach them critical thinking. They should read good books. We do the work for the dictator by separating them from the world. I hope the regime will fall, because otherwise all free-thinking authors, especially Ukrainian ones, will be banned anyway».

Dariia Piskozub said: «There have been 40 days of war, genocide in Bucha, Izium and Mariupol have been erased to dust, 70% of Chernihiv is destroyed, and even this is not enough for the writer Nataliia Shcherba – she will not deprive russian children, because how will they grow up? Russian children grew up normally, reading Dunno, The Wizard of the Emerald City and Old Khottabych, and still became murderers, looters and rapists, but two hundred Ukrainian children will not grow up because of rusnia».

She called on the publishing house «School» to terminate the contract with Shcherba, and the educational platform Litosvita to stop inviting the author to participate in lectures. Litosvita notes that authors cooperating with russia would not be invited.

In addition, Piskozub asked science fiction writers from Kharkiv Dmytro Hromov and Oleh Ladyzhenskyi, who write under the collective pseudonym Henry Lion Oldie, if they were ending their cooperation with russia.

Dariia Piskozub is a Ukrainian writer, a native of Lviv and author of the fantasy Car.

Nataliia Shcherba is a writer, author of the series of teenage fantasy novels Chasodii, Charodil and Lunastry.

We would like to remind you that foreign writers have terminated contracts for translations of their books in russia at the request of Ukrainians. Among them are many science fiction writers. Also in Ukraine, bookstores and libraries are urged not to distribute books from russia.