A war on words: why Russian strikes are targeting Ukrainian publishers

A war on words: the destruction of Ukrainian books

The recent Russian drone strikes on a logistics and distribution centre in northern Kharkiv have left the city's publishing industry reeling. Over 8 million books, including 1 million school textbooks, were destroyed in the attack, leaving many wondering about the impact on education in Ukraine.

For Viktor Kruhlov, CEO of the Ranok publishing house, the destruction of these books is a devastating blow to the book industry. 'Ranok is the main children's publishing house in Ukraine; we publish at least one third of the total number of textbooks in Ukraine. Of course, we have other warehouses across the country, but that was the bulk of our production. This was a huge blow to the book industry.'

The loss of these books will have a lasting impact on education throughout the country. 'The Little Prince was somewhere here. I don't think we will find it now,' Kruhlov says, walking across a thick carpet of ashes. 'Those are books for primary school, which were to be delivered across the country the following day. We deliver them to every school. Here is a science book, it's about nature, life, and you can still see this chapter called 'air'.'

The destruction of these books is not an isolated incident. On 19 July, publishing houses in Kyiv were heavily targeted by a barrage of missiles and drones. Those strikes saw 750,000 books destroyed. On 2 July, 800,000 books were destroyed in similar strikes. This summer alone, Russia has wiped out more than 9.5 million Ukrainian books – a third of Ukraine's average annual book production of 25 million.

For Nata Protas, director of Zhorzh, another publishing house, the destruction of these books is an issue of survival of the Ukrainian language and of the Ukrainian nation in general. 'We have known over 400 bans on the Ukrainian language by Russia throughout history. So what happened is an issue of survival of the Ukrainian language and of the Ukrainian nation in general. Russia continues to pose a threat with its imperial narrative, and its will to simply seize or destroy something that is not theirs.'

The destruction of these books is a deliberate strategy to damage Ukrainian culture and identity, because Russia doesn't want to accept a prosperous Ukraine. 'The whole world should know about what happened here. We learned that during the Second World War, Nazis would burn thousands of books. Now, Russians routinely destroy millions of Ukrainian books. It is a deliberate strategy to damage Ukrainian culture and identity, because Russia doesn't want to accept a prosperous Ukraine.'

The impact of these attacks will be felt for years to come. 'The loss to my publishing house is immense. Nothing could be saved. At the busiest time of the year for educational publishing, 1 million of the 8 million books destroyed here were schoolbooks,' Kruhlov says.

The destruction of these books is a war on Ukraine's culture and identity. It is a war that Russia is waging not just at the frontline, but on Ukraine's culture and identity. The world should know about what happened here.