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Russian attacks destroy 10 million Ukrainian books, roughly 30% of annual output
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Russian attacks on Ukrainian publishing infrastructure in July and August destroyed roughly 10 million books, about 30% of Ukraine's annual output, prompting the Ukrainian Book Institute to warn of a potential collapse of the country's book ecosystem and call for international support.
The attacks targeted warehouses and distribution centers rather than individual titles, hitting the logistics backbone of Ukraine's publishing supply chain. For anyone operating physical distribution infrastructure, the loss of a single hub like RNK-Ranok, which served 51 retail shops and multiple websites, demonstrates how concentrated warehousing creates a catastrophic single point of failure under physical attack.
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An August 1 attack on RNK-Ranok warehouses in Kharkiv destroyed approximately 8 million books and 600,000 school textbooks.
The total loss is preliminarily estimated at nearly 1 billion hryvnias, or 16.5 million euros.
The Ukrainian Book Institute is calling for international financial support and an end to cooperation with Russian publishers.
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