Ukrainian publishing house Vivat lost more than 35,500 books worth over Hr 16.6 million ($372,800) in a Russian strike on a warehouse in Sviatopetrivske, Kyiv region, on Aug. 28, the company’s press service told Kyiv Post.
Vivat ranks among Ukraine’s three largest publishing houses and is fourth by number of bookstores, according to the company’s information shared to Kyiv Post.
The inventory is still underway, the press service said, and the company is not yet ready to disclose the precise number of titles and copies destroyed.
Vivat was founded in 2013 and sells roughly 2.5 million books a year and puts out about 300 new titles annually across three core segments – children’s literature, fiction and non-fiction, according to the company’s website. Vivat runs its own bookstore network in Kharkiv, Kyiv, Odesa, Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnytsia, Uzhhorod and Lviv, alongside an online store carrying more than 20,000 titles, the website says.
The destroyed warehouse held Vivat’s book stock earmarked for further sales and shipments. The losses include a range of editions, but the company declined to name specific titles or discuss print runs it considers completely destroyed until its team finishes the count, the press service said.
Vivat is separately tallying losses of its own books caused by strikes on partner warehouses and retail venues, including those of Readeat, Book.ua, the book market at Pochaina, and shopping malls. Because part of its partners’ distribution infrastructure was destroyed, some of Vivat’s shipments remain paused, the company said.
Ukraine’s postal, publishing, alcohol, retail and energy sectors absorbed devastating Russian strikes overnight Aug. 27-28, as attacks hit two Nova Poshta sorting depots, burned down warehouses of several major book publishers and retailers, and heavily damaged a vodka distillery, a retail hypermarket and a solar equipment warehouse.
Russia hit a warehouse used by 42 Ukrainian publishing houses, according to information from the Urbino publishing house on Telegram.