ALSO SEE: Russian Strike Near Kyiv Kills 37, in One of the Year’s Deadliest Attacks

More than 60,000 books were destroyed in a single warehouse strike near Kyiv this week, adding to losses that publishers say are becoming impossible to absorb.

Another Russian strike has destroyed tens of thousands of Ukrainian books around Kyiv, adding to a summer of attacks that has wiped out millions of copies and damaged the warehouses, printing plants and markets that keep Ukraine’s publishing industry running.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022, Ukrainian publishers, printers, bookstores, warehouses and other parts of the literature industry have repeatedly been hit by Russian attacks.

The destruction has drawn comparisons to earlier Russian and Soviet efforts to suppress the Ukrainian language, culture and national identity, with publishers and cultural figures warning that the current attacks are damaging not only businesses and infrastructure but the means through which Ukrainian culture is produced and preserved.

The latest loss came on 28 August, when a Russian drone struck a Nova Post fulfillment and sorting center in Sviatopetrivske, Kyiv Oblast. More than 60,000 books stored there were destroyed, including books belonging to Ukrainian publishers and retailers such as Vivat, A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA, Osnovy, Readeat and Book.ua.

The destruction is taking a growing toll on Ukrainian culture

Nova Post director Yevhen Tafiichuk said the strike destroyed the company's most modern robotic fulfillment center, along with books from several publishers and stores. He said the company is working with affected partners to compensate their losses and is moving toward a decentralized fulfillment system to reduce the risk of losing large inventories in a single strike.

“For centuries, the enemy has tried to destroy the Ukrainian language, culture and memory. Once, it burned libraries and banned printing; today, it launches missiles at printing plants and warehouses filled with books,” Tafiichuk said.

The latest destruction comes after the Ukrainian publishing industry estimated that Russian attacks had already destroyed about 13 million books in July and August – nearly a third of the number of books Ukrainian publishers printed during all of 2025.

Another warehouse full of books goes up in flames

The Sviatopetrivske strike hit a logistics facility rather than a publishing house itself, but the consequences spread across much of the book market.

Readeat founder Dmytro Feliksov said more than 60,000 physical books were destroyed and estimated his company's losses at more than UAH 23 million. The warehouse held stock for several publishers and booksellers.

Vivat CEO Yuliia Orlova said the publisher also lost books stored at the Kyiv warehouse in the attack. The company had already begun moving some print runs to other parts of Ukraine, including Lviv, after earlier Russian strikes destroyed publishing infrastructure. But many new releases and books by Ukrainian authors remained in Kyiv.

The same attack destroyed a warehouse used by A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA to fulfill direct orders. The losses came as publishers were already trying to spread their inventories across multiple locations to reduce the risk posed by Russian strikes.

Millions of books destroyed across Ukraine, publishers hit again and again

On 1 August, a Russian strike on the warehouses of RNK-Ranok destroyed nearly 8 million books, including hundreds of thousands of school textbooks. The Ukrainian Book Institute said the loss from that strike alone was equivalent to about 30% of the country's annual book production.

A separate Russian strike on 19 July destroyed the Konvi printing facility and about 250,000 books belonging to Knyholav, along with print runs and materials belonging to numerous other publishers.

BookChef has suffered some of the largest losses around Kyiv. A Russian strike in July destroyed about 800,000 books at its main warehouse. A second strike in August hit a backup warehouse opened after the first loss, destroying more than 100,000 additional books, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

The attacks have also damaged publishing offices and warehouses. On 16 August, Russian strikes near Kyiv’s Pochaina metro station damaged the offices and warehouses of BookChef and RM, including areas where books were stored.

Kyiv’s Pochaina market also burned

The damage is not limited to modern distribution centers.

On 16 August, a Russian strike set fire to Kyiv’s Pochaina book market, one of the capital’s best-known places to buy new, used and second-hand books. Much of the market burned, with the fire covering more than 2,000 square meters of commercial space.

The market, formerly known as Petrivka, had operated for about 30 years and was a major hub for second-hand books and other goods. Dozens of thousands of books were destroyed, according to local reporting.

Kyiv’s Pochaina book market was hit again during Russia’s overnight missile attack, with rows of stalls burned and books damaged.

“Pochaina Book Market is finished. Three missiles hit the stalls. This time, the story is over,” Oleksandr Krasovytskyi, CEO of Folio publishing… pic.twitter.com/fum3LNN5Dt

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) August 16, 2026

The destruction was extensive enough that 60–70% of the market's commercial space was lost. The surviving Bukinist section began reopening later in August, with booksellers returning to trade where their stock had survived, RBC reported.

The market's destruction also meant the loss of a part of Kyiv's book culture that cannot simply be replaced by reprinting new editions. Second-hand books, older editions and used collections had been traded there for generations.

The losses are hitting an already fragile industry

The Ukrainian publishing sector had been growing before Russia's latest attacks, helped in part by rising demand for Ukrainian-language books during the full-scale invasion.

But publishers now face the repeated cost of replacing destroyed print runs, warehouses and equipment while also trying to keep books moving to stores and readers.

Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, director general of Mystetskyi Arsenal, said the Ukrainian book industry had only recently begun to grow, making the latest losses especially painful.

“Losses are accumulating, while the tools to minimize them are being built extremely slowly,” she said. “Culture will not disappear, but it will once again be drained of its strength.”

Publishers seek help to rebuild and protect a supply chain under attack

The Ukrainian Publishing Association has called for additional support, including war-risk insurance for book stocks, affordable financing to rebuild printing capacity and the restoration of state purchases of books for libraries.

The Ukrainian Book Institute has also appealed for international support for the publishing sector, saying Russia has systematically targeted publishing houses, bookstores, printing facilities and warehouses since the start of the full-scale invasion.

For publishers, the latest strikes show that moving books from a printer to a reader has itself become a wartime vulnerability. A single warehouse can contain the output of dozens of publishers, and losing it can erase months of work and leave books unavailable even when the companies themselves survive.

Nova Post says it is responding by distributing inventory across more locations rather than relying on large centralized facilities. The strategy may help reduce future losses, but it also reflects how deeply Russia’s ongoing attacks have altered the basic infrastructure through which Ukrainians produce, store and buy books.