Books burn in the fire at a major book warehouse following Russian drone strikes in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, August 1, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP
A Russian strike on a warehouse in northeastern Ukraine over the weekend destroyed eight million books, the publishing house said on Monday (August 3, 2026), slamming it as an attack on Ukrainian culture.
It is not the first time Russia has struck a major publishing centre, drawing accusations from Kyiv that Moscow was specifically targeting them.
“This is the largest loss to Ukraine’s book infrastructure since the beginning of the full-scale war” in 2022, the publisher, Ranok, said.
An AFP reporter on Saturday (August 1, 2026) saw firefighters battling to contain the blaze at the warehouse in Kharkiv hours after Russia launched a drone and missile attack.
“More than 8 million books have been destroyed in the fire, among them textbooks for children,” Ranok said in a statement on social media.
“The blaze is still raging. The enemy is trying to burn out our education and culture,” it added.
The publisher’s director Viktor Kruglov called it an “attack on Ukrainian education and culture.”
A strike on a warehouse near Kyiv last month burnt 800,000 books to ash, the publisher — whose portfolio includes works by George Orwell and Barack Obama — said.
Throughout its invasion, Russia has frequently hit Ukrainian museums, galleries, film studios, churches and other sites of cultural importance.
Published – August 03, 2026 09:40 pm IST
