---
title: "Destruction of 8 million books: Russia delivers a crushing blow to Ukrainian publishing"
description: "Russia launched a series of strikes against Ukrainian printing houses and warehouses, destroying 8 million books and causing 1 billion hryvnias in damage. 📚🔥 Runs of popular publications and board games were lost, and key logistics infrastructure was destroyed. The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture called this a targeted destruction of culture."
date: 2026-08-04T11:26:00.000Z
lang: en
url: https://xab.info/en/posts/destruction-of-8-million-books-russia-delivers-a-crushing-blow-to-ukrainian-publishing
tags: [ukraine, book-publishing, rnk-ranok, culture-war, logistics-attack]
publisher: "XAB.info"
---

# Destruction of 8 million books: Russia delivers a crushing blow to Ukrainian publishing

![Destroyed book publishing building in Ukraine after Russian strike, burnt books and debris in water](https://xab.info/media/2026/08/04/unichtozhenie-8-millionov-knig-rossiya-nanesla-udar-po-ukrainskomu-knigoizdaniyu/unichtozhenie-8-millionov-knig-rossiya-nanesla-udar-po-ukrainskomu-knigoizdaniyu-1.webp)

In July and early August 2026, the Ukrainian book industry faced an unprecedented catastrophe. A series of Russian attacks targeting printing houses, logistics centers, and publisher warehouses led to the destruction of cultural heritage and caused colossal economic damage. Preliminary estimates put the losses at around 1 billion hryvnias, with the number of destroyed books reaching 8 million copies.

### Attack on the logistics center in Kharkiv

One of the largest incidents occurred on Saturday, August 1. Russian kamikaze drones ("Shaheds") struck the automated logistics center of the RNK-Ranok corporation in Kharkiv. The attack sparked a fire that took a full day to extinguish.

This warehouse, covering about 10,000 square meters, was a key distribution hub for literature. It stored millions of books from leading Ukrainian publishers: "Ranok", "Fabula", READBERRY, "Kenguru", as well as products from the "Knyholand" bookstore chain.

Viktor Kruhlov, General Director of the "Ranok" publishing house, confirmed that the strike was precise and planned. According to him, two missile drones hit the same spot, indicating a targeted operation to destroy textbooks and literature.

### Losses for publishers and cultural institutions

The consequences of the attack on the Kharkiv warehouse became the largest loss for Ukraine's book infrastructure since the start of the full-scale war. The "Fabula" publishing house stated that restoring millions of lost editions would be extremely difficult, but the team intends to continue working despite the enemy's attempts to destroy culture.

Significant damage was also suffered by the company ROZUM, which has been creating board games for 8 years. The Russian strike destroyed a rented warehouse with products worth between 25 and 30 million hryvnias. In a matter of minutes, the company lost more than 200,000 copies of games, including all available runs of popular projects: "CATAN", "Explosive Kittens", "Who is on top?" and "Club of Dilettantes".

### Destruction of the "Konvi" printing house

Another blow to the industry was the attack on the night of July 19, which effectively destroyed the "Konvi" printing house — one of the three largest in the country. A fire in the printing house warehouse led to the total loss of already printed book runs.

In particular, the "Staroho Leva" publishing house lost runs of Bohdan Kolomiychuk's novel "Lviv Gambit" and Selma Lagerlöf's book "Memoirs of a Child". It was also necessary to postpone the printing of editions by Olga Hutsal, Vladimir Klychko, and Tatyana Kil.

The "Knygolav" publishing house reported the loss of four runs, including the new release "Beach Trap". Company representatives called Russia's actions terrorist, aimed at destroying education and heritage, but promised to continue their work.

### Official data from the Ministry of Culture

Ukrainian Minister of Culture Tatyana Berezhna confirmed the scale of the tragedy. According to her data, Russian attacks alone destroyed more than 1.5 million copies of books during July. At the "Konvi Plus" printing house, about 5,000 square meters of production space were completely destroyed, and another 2,000 suffered significant damage.

Not only books burned down, but also printing equipment. More than 600,000 finished books and textbooks were destroyed, and another 350,000 were in the production process. The preliminary damage to the printing house alone is estimated at 110 million hryvnias. Despite the destruction, Ukrainian publishers and printing houses continue to work, demonstrating resilience in the face of attempts to destroy national culture.