The entire book publishing industry of Ukraine will feel the consequences of the Russian missile attack on the “Vivat” printing house in Kharkiv. Without the support of the state and the international community, it will not be possible to restore the destroyed.
The owner of the “Faktor-Druk” printing plant Serhii Polituchy told about it on Radio Svoboda.
The destroyed “Faktor-Druk” printing house is part of the Factor group of companies, as well as “Vivat” publishing house and bookstores. It printed books of almost all Ukrainian publishing houses, and was one of the largest typographic complexes of a complete cycle in Europe.
Due to the full-scale war, the security and energy situation in Kharkiv, local printing houses were still not working at full capacity and did not meet the needs of all publishing houses. And after the Russian missile attack, the total capacity of book publishing in Ukraine may decrease by 30-40%.
This also applies to textbooks. Polituchy says that the printing house produced up to 50% of all textbooks printed in the state
If there is help in restoring the printing press, it will still take at least several months. Relocation is expensive and risky, because there may be a shortage of specialists in other regions of Ukraine.
"Most printing facilities are concentrated in Kharkiv. I donʼt know for sure, but if we are talking about book printing, I think at least 85-90% of all books printed in Ukraine are printed in Kharkiv — at our printing house, as well as at our partners, at our colleagues in the industry”, Polituchy explained.
- On May 23, the Russian occupiers launched a massive missile attack on Kharkiv. Missiles hit the territory of the “Vivat” publishing house (Factor druk printing house) — seven workers were killed and 17 more injured.
- President Volodymyr Zelensky reported today that 50 000 books were burned in the destroyed printing house.