On the night of August 28, 2026, as a result of a Russian drone strike in Sviatopetrivske in Kyiv Oblast, a warehouse was completely destroyed by fire. It stored books from popular Ukrainian publishers. The fire, reported by RBC-Ukraine citing the Readeat and Vivat publishing houses, occurred on the premises of a Nova Poshta logistics facility. At the time of publication, the fire was still being extinguished, and the parties were clarifying the exact scale of the losses.
What happened at the warehouse
The warehouse was located on the Nova Poshta premises in Sviatopetrivske and belonged to the Vivat publishing house. According to zn.ua, more than 60,000 books were destroyed in the strike, including not only Vivat's own publications but also products of its partners — the Readeat and Book.ua bookstores, which also stored their goods at this facility. Thus, the strike affected several links in the book market chain — from the publisher to the online retail platforms.
Reaction from publishers and stores
Despite the loss of the warehouse, Vivat stated that it is not halting operations: the publisher's offline bookstores remain open, and e-books and audiobooks continue to be available to readers. The Readeat online store, for its part, announced a suspension of order shipments, explaining this by the need to assess the consequences of the strike and determine the procedure for resuming logistics. The company emphasized the emotional nature of the losses: "Each box was someone's expectation, a gift, a long-awaited book." According to the company, Readeat's offline stores are also continuing to operate.
Context of the nighttime strike
A new wave of attacks began as early as 18:00 on August 27: according to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia launched 164 drones at Ukraine, mostly Shahed-type strike UAVs, some of which were jet-powered. On the night of August 28, drones and guided aviation bombs struck several oblasts. As RBC-Ukraine reported, in addition to the warehouse in Sviatopetrivske, a Nova Poshta terminal in Sumy and an Epitsentr hypermarket in Zaporizhzhia were hit, and in Kharkiv Oblast one person was killed as a result of a strike. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, air defense forces managed to shoot down 137 of the 164 drones launched.
Contradictory data
In the initial reports, the scale of the losses was described in general terms — as "thousands of books," whereas a later clarification from zn.ua gives the specific figure of "more than 60,000 books from Readeat and Book.ua." Both formulations do not contradict each other in order of magnitude; however, according to market participants, the final count of the destroyed print run is still being carried out, so the exact figure may be revised as the assessment of the fire's consequences is completed.
