russian missiles and drones are hitting Ukrainian printing plants and book warehouses. Publishers lose entire print runs overnight. Ebooks are still in stock. You can help keep them alive.
Kyiv Pochaina book market after russian attack, August 2026. Photo: Vic Harkness
In May 2024, a russian missile strike destroyed Faktor-Druk in Kharkiv, one of the largest printing plants in Europe. In July and August 2026, a new wave of attacks followed: in a single month, Ukraine's book industry lost around 10 million copies and a large part of its production capacity. The strike on the warehouses of the RNK-Ranok publishing corporation in Kharkiv on 1 August 2026 alone destroyed book stock equivalent to roughly 30% of the industry's annual output. Publishers estimate their losses in billions of hryvnias; some are close to financial collapse.1 Publishers are small companies. A lost print run can mean a lost year.
This is not the first attempt to stop books in Ukrainian. Only the method has changed.
Ukrainian publishers sell ebooks from their own websites and through Ukrainian ebook stores. Ebooks are in stock, cost a few euros, and the money goes directly to the publisher. You do not need to read Ukrainian to buy one.
How to buy, step by stepAir defence is what prevents the next warehouse from burning. These organisations run dedicated air defence campaigns and accept international cards.
Share this site. Post a photo of the ebook you bought. Tell your book club, your library, your publisher friends. Most people outside Ukraine do not know that book warehouses are being targeted.
Because ebooks are in stock. Printed stock is limited: russia is bombing the warehouses that hold it and the plants that print it. Ebooks are cheaper than imported print books, and the money goes directly to the publishers and booksellers who are losing the most. Printed books are welcome too, if you can get them.
Yes. A publisher that has lost a print run needs revenue now, not in six months. Ebook sales are immediate revenue with no shipping, no customs and no stock risk.
If you want the largest effect per euro, donating to air defence does more; that is why we link to it. Doing both is fine.
Medical aid, tourniquets, drones, evacuation vehicles, ambulances, animal shelters, laptops for children, schools, heating infrastructure. All of it matters. Give to what you find most important.
This campaign exists because publishing is rarely on that list, and we think it belongs there.
Buying books and reading them are two different activities. You are not required to do both.
Buying an ebook takes five minutes, needs no fundraising, supports the author as well as the publisher, and sends the money directly.
Probably. That is not the point. The goal is to get money to Ukrainian publishers. A pirated copy sends them nothing.
Directly to the store you buy from. This campaign does not handle any money and takes no commission. We are not a charity; we are a signpost.
