"No missile or ban can erase the Ukrainian word": Russian attacks have destroyed 1.5 million books in July

Russian attacks have destroyed over 1.5 million books in Ukraine since the start of July.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda. Kultura

Details: "Russian missiles have destroyed printing houses, burned down publishers' warehouses and destroyed hundreds of thousands of textbooks that were meant to reach Ukrainian schoolchildren before the start of the new school year," said Kyrylo Budanov, Head of the President's Office.

Tetiana Berezhna, Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture, said publishers have suffered losses of hundreds of millions of hryvnias due to systematic Russian attacks.

Budanov called the strikes "a deliberate continuation of the cultural genocide that Moscow has waged against Ukraine for centuries".

He drew parallels with anti-Ukrainian policies implemented by the Russian Empire, noting that in July 1863 the secret Valuev Circular was issued, which banned the publication of most books in Ukrainian.

Thirteen years later, Russia introduced a further measure, the Ems Ukaz, which almost completely destroyed Ukrainian literature and also banned Ukrainian theatre performances, concerts of Ukrainian songs and public readings of Ukrainian literary texts.

Quote from Budanov: "The goal was always the same – to strip Ukrainians of their language, culture, education and historical memory. But Moscow is stuck in its historical mire and failed to grasp the main point. Today, Ukraine has its own state and its own army. Behind every Ukrainian book, every printing house, every library stand Ukraine's defence forces. We will rebuild the printing houses and print new books. No circulars or decrees could destroy the Ukrainian word. Nor will Russian missiles."

Details: Berezhna said that printing houses affected by the attacks can receive state grants of up to UAH 16 million (US$357,000) for recovery.

Publishers can also receive up to UAH 30 million (US$670,000) in compensation under the war risk insurance programme.

The Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture is providing advice to affected businesses on possible support.

Berezhna said the government is working to expand the e-Book programme for purchasing Ukrainian books, introduce subsidies to help bookshops cover rental costs and update the programme for replenishing public library collections.

Background:

• In early July, Russian missiles struck the central warehouse of BookChef publishing house's logistics partner, destroying around 800,000 books.
• A partner printing house of the Ranok publishing house was also affected. The company Mega-poligraf, which produces textbooks for the new school year, halted operations due to damage to equipment and to paper and material stocks.
• A Russian strike damaged the warehouse of the Nash Format book publisher and online store. The blast wave and shrapnel damaged the façade, causing part of the walls to collapse and damaging the ceilings. A fire broke out on the premises. Many books were damaged during the attack and subsequent firefighting.
• During a strike on Kyiv on 19 July, Russian forces destroyed the warehouse of the knigolove publishing house, where 250,000 books were stored. The office of arc.ua, a publisher specialising in popular science literature on medicine, history, sociology and cultural studies, was also damaged.
• The premises of the Mison publishing house's editorial office were completely burned down in the same attack. The Konvi printing and polygraphy company, which produces materials for Ranok, Laboratoriia, ArtBooks, BookChef and many other publishers, was also affected.
• On the night of 16-17 July, the Russians attacked Sumy, damaging the building of the regional academic library.

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