Lviv Oblast will allocate 2 million hryvnias from its budget to buy books from publisher warehouses after Russian attacks destroyed millions of titles across Ukraine.
Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the Lviv Regional Military Administration, announced the emergency funding on social media. The purchased books will be transferred directly to public libraries across the region.
Kozytskyi said urgent action was needed to save Ukrainian books from warehouses before enemy forces destroyed the work of local publishers. He noted that Russian strikes had repeatedly targeted storage facilities across the country.
Lviv Oblast is a region in western Ukraine bordering Poland, governed by its regional military administration during the ongoing conflict. The Ukrainian hryvnia is the national currency of Ukraine.
Warehouse strike near Kyiv
The funding decision follows a Russian attack on the night leading into August 28 that hit a warehouse in Svyatopetrivske, a village just outside Kyiv. The attack caused a fire that burned books belonging to several publishers, including A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA and Vivat.
Dmytro Feliksov, founder of the Readeat bookstore chain and the BookTicket service, estimated that more than 60,000 books were destroyed in the Svyatopetrivske facility. He stated that financial losses from the single attack exceeded 23 million hryvnias.
Svyatopetrivske is located in Bucha Raion, west of the Ukrainian capital. A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA and Vivat are among the country's prominent publishing houses, producing children's literature, fiction, and educational materials.
Widespread attacks on publishers
Russian shelling over the summer destroyed millions of books in various cities, including school textbooks for children. Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna reported that Russian strikes in July alone destroyed more than 1.5 million books.
Between May and August 2026, Russia carried out at least 15 strikes targeting bookstores, printing facilities, warehouses, and publisher offices across Ukraine. Official figures show that at least 9.65 million books were damaged or destroyed during those four months.
The largest single destruction occurred on August 1, when a Russian strike on the logistics center of publishing house Ranok and the distribution center of bookstore chain KnigoLand destroyed 8 million books. Following that attack, publishing corporation RNK-Ranok was forced to cut staff salaries.
