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Between May and early August 2026, russian attacks destroyed or damaged at least 9.65 million books in Ukraine, dealing a serious blow to the countryβs publishing industry. During this period, russia carried out at least 15 attacks on bookstores, printing houses, publishing warehouses, and publishing house offices. The publishers Ranok, “Knygolav,” BookChef, the “Konvi” printing house, and the “KnygoLand” bookstore chain suffered the greatest losses.
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According to a new analysis by the Chytomo portal, the destroyed inventory accounts for nearly 29% of the total print run of books and brochures published in Ukraine in 2025, which reached 33.21 million copies. When compared to this yearβs figures, the scale of the losses is even more significant. As of August 3, Ukrainian publishers had printed 13.09 million books since the beginning of 2026, which means that the number of copies destroyed over the summer amounts to approximately 74% of the countryβs total book production.
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The intensification of attacks began in May. As a result of a massive combined attack on Kyiv carried out by russia on the night of May 24, the βBukvaβ bookstore, located in the βKvadratβ shopping center, was completely destroyed by fire. The store had been operating there for over 10 years. The fire destroyed the premises, equipment, and all the books stored there. Representatives of the bookstore stated that it would be impossible to restore the book collection at the destroyed location.
The office and warehouse of the β1 More Pageβ publishing house were also damaged. At the time, a post on their Instagram page stated that βthe people and the books are safe, and everything else can be resolved by a collective cleanup of the office.β
The publishing industry suffered major losses in July, when russia intensified its attacks on publishing infrastructure. Over the course of the month, more than 1.5 million books were destroyed, and the print runs of at least 17 publishing houses were affected, including βRanok,β βGramota,β βLitera LTD,β “Lingvist,” “Knyholav,” “Laboratoriya,” Artbooks, “Assa,” “Athena,” BookChef, Mison, “Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva,” and others.
On July 2, a russian strike on Kyiv destroyed the central warehouse of Denka Logistics, the logistics partner of the Ukrainian publishing house BookChef. Unfortunately, as a result of the attack, most of the print run β approximately 800,000 books β was lost. At the time, this was the largest loss of books in a single attack since the start of Russiaβs full-scale invasion.
BookChef stated that it would continue its work despite the destruction of the warehouse and called on readers to support the publishing house by purchasing books to help finance new print runs.
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On July 19, another russian strike destroyed the warehouse of the βKnygolavβ publishing house, where approximately 250,000 books were lost. Some of the books were lost due to the βKonviβ printing house, which was destroyed by Russia. According to βChytomo,β Ukraineβs Ministry of Culture estimated the publisherβs losses at approximately $445,500.
That attack also completely destroyed the office space of the fledgling publishing house Mison, which had launched just this past March and was preparing to release its first book. Fortunately, no one was injured, and nearly the entire print run was saved. The founders of Mison, Inna and Oleksandr Pakholyuk, posted on their Facebook page: βOur first print run was almost entirely saved β only about 200 copies were lost. We will definitely send the books to everyone who placed an order.β
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The largest-scale attack occurred on August 1, when a russian drone struck a shared warehouse in Kharkiv used by the publishing corporation βRNK-Ranokβ and the main distribution center of the βKnygoLandβ bookstore chain.
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“There were all kinds of textbooks: French, German, world history, Ukrainian history, art, law, health and safety, physics, chemistry, and English. More than 27 different titles, and all of them were supposed to be delivered to the schools. Starting today, August 3, they were supposed to be distributed to schools,β said Larisa Zubkova, director of the publishing houseβs logistics center, to reporters from βSuspilne Kharkiv.β
The warehouse stored books from publishers across Ukraine. In addition to βRanokβsβ own publications, it contained titles from ten publishers and imprints of the RNK-Ranok publishing group, including Readberry, βZhorzh,β βFabula,β β1 More Page,β Varvar Publishing, “Osnova,” “Svoe,” Korali Books, “Kangaroo,” and 4mamas. According to preliminary estimates, the strike destroyed approximately 600,000 school textbooks, about 28,000 book titles, and a total of 8 million printed copies. This marks the largest loss of books in a single attack since the start of the full-scale war.
The estimated losses from the destruction are approximately $24 million.