Russian drone strike destroys about 8 million books at Kharkiv publisher’s warehouse

Kharkiv, Ukraine. A Russian drone strike on August 1 destroyed about 8 million books at a warehouse operated by Ranok, one of Ukraine’s largest children’s publishers, in what the company’s director described as a devastating loss.

Warehouse attack

Viktor Kruhlov, Ranok’s director, struggled to hold back tears as he watched piles of books burn.

“It’s a terrible sight to see books burning,” he said.

Kruhlov said a first explosion at the warehouse was followed moments later by a second at the same location.

“This was a deliberately planned attack against the book warehouse,” he said.

Ranok prints around one-third of the textbooks used in Ukrainian schools.

Impact on publishing

Publishers say that more than 10 million books have been destroyed in attacks on warehouses in recent months, threatening an industry that initially benefited from increased demand for Ukrainian-language literature at the start of the four-year-old war.

Russia’s defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Identity and economic costs

The attacks on book warehouses and printing houses have resonated in Ukraine, where many regard the war as a fight for national survival and identity.

Education Minister Andrii Butenko described the attacks as an attempt to destroy the Ukrainian language, history and memory, “everything from which the identity of our children grows.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly questioned Ukraine’s separate statehood and argued that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.

Economists and business leaders say the strikes on the publishing industry also illustrate the mounting economic costs of a war increasingly defined by endurance.