A civilian vehicle stands in the Vidradnyi neighborhood of Kyiv on June 18, following the mid-June Russian attacks on the Ukraine capital. Image – Getty: Dmytro Falkovskyi
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Jobava: ‘We Stand With Our Ukrainian Colleagues’
The International Publishers Association (IPA) in Geneva today (July 7) has issued condemnatory comments on recent Russian attacks on publishing-related targets, as Vladimir Putin continues to lay siege to the targets, particularly in and near Kyiv.
As Mithil Aggarwal and Peter Guo write for NBC News, what is considered Russia’s largest aerial assault since the start of Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine came on Thursday night, July 3 into 4.
“Russia overnight,” write Aggarwal and Guo, “launched its largest aerial assault on Ukraine’s capital since the start of the war just hours after president Donald Trump signaled dimming prospects for a ceasefire following a telephone call with his Russian counterpart.” Some observers, including the German chancellor Friedrich Merz, reportedly say they see a connection between Putin-Trump phone calls and “even tougher attacks from Moscow.”
Vira Shurmakevych at Ukrainska Pravda confirms in her July 4 piece that “A warehouse belonging to the publishing house and online shop Nash Format was extensively damaged”, though the publisher indicates that no one was killed or injured.
During these attacks, Ukrainian PEN reports that its warehouse in Kyiv was damaged, a facility “where English-language and bilingual English-Ukrainian language books for the Unbreakable Libraries project have been stored. This is where our team and dozens of volunteers from around the world collect packages for Ukrainian libraries that have suffered from Russia’s genocidal war every month.”
Some of the books damaged or destroyed in this warehouse attack were donated by Book Aid International with the support of PEN International, English PEN, and Pineapple Lane Publishing House.
Maksym Sytnikov
Maksym Sytnikov, the PEN Ukraine executive director, is quoted in that account, saying, “Fortunately, there were no people on the location at the moment of the strike.
“As a result of the attack, the ceiling collapsed, and the windows were damaged. There were around 200 boxes of books in the warehouse, which equals about 11,000 copies. We are now assessing the level of damage and the condition of books.”
This follows what has been reported to be the destruction on the night of June 16 into 17 of another publisher’s property, that of Ukrainskyi Prioytet. Details of that instance reported by Daria Lobanok at Ukrainska Pravda.
Chytomo‘s report on this mid-June attack indicates that 28 people overall in Kyiv died in the assault.
These appear to be the most serious publishing-targeting events of the conflict since the May 2024 attacks on the printing facilities of Faktor-Druk in Kharkiv.
Einarsson: ‘Attacks on Publishing Are Attacks on Culture’
Gvantsa Jobava
In its mailing today to its 105 member-associations in 84 countries, IPA president Gvantsa Jobava says, “Our Ukrainian colleagues have been so brave for so long.
“Despite the bombing and the day-to-day challenges, they are still publishing books for Ukrainian readers.
“We continue to stand with our Ukrainian colleagues and remain available to support them however we can.”
Kristenn Einarsson
And Kristenn Einarsson, chair of IPA’s Freedom to Publish committee and founding CEO of Norway’s World Expression Forum (WEXFO), says, “As our 2024 IPA Prix Voltaire laureates and other shortlisted publishers have demonstrated, war includes attacking the freedom to publish, silencing the voices of the victims and their means to be heard.
“These attacks on publishing are also attacks on culture and language.
“What must happen for all of this to stop and what stories will we tell when it does?”
In CNN’s report on the July 3 attack, Victoria Butenko; Svitlana Vlasova; Gul Tuysuz; Jessie Yeung; and Lauren Said-Moorhouse write, ““Notably, the first air raid alerts in our cities and regions yesterday began to blare almost simultaneously with media reports discussing a phone call between president Trump and Putin,” Zelensky said. “Yet again, Russia is showing it has no intention of ending the war and terror.”
More from Publishing Perspectives on publishing and Russia’s assault on Ukraine is here; more on Book Aid International is here, and more on PEN Ukraine is here.
Publishing Perspectives is the International Publishers Association’s world media partner.