Ukraine's printing capacity will drop by 30-40% due to Russian attack on Kharkiv printing house

He said this on the air of Radio Svoboda.

The owner of the Factor-Druk printing plant, Serhiy Polituchyi, whose printing workshop was destroyed by Russia's missile strike on Kharkiv on May 23, said that it will be impossible to resume production without the support of the state and the international community. According to him, this Russian attack will have consequences for the entire book publishing industry in Ukraine, because due to the security and energy situation in Kharkiv, local printing houses were already not working at full capacity and did not meet the needs of all publishers.

"There is a situation where the total capacity of Ukrainian printing houses could no longer meet the needs of publishing companies. With the destruction of our printing house, the total capacity will decrease by at least 30-40%. And thus, the process of printing books, including textbooks, which we used to print, probably up to 50% of all textbooks printed in the country. I don't know how we will do it tomorrow. And I understand that without the support of both the international community and the state, this issue will be very difficult to resolve," said Polituchyi.

However, it may take a long time to resume the printing house's work even with help - at least several months, according to the owner of Factor-Druk. 

Commenting on the possibility of moving the printing house to safer regions of Ukraine, Polituchyi explains that this process is very expensive. In addition, he says, in other regions of Ukraine, such companies may experience a shortage of industry specialists.

"Most printing capacities are concentrated in Kharkiv. I don't know for sure, but if we're talking about book printing, I think at least 85-90% of all books that are printed in Ukraine are printed in Kharkiv. Books are also printed at our printing house, as well as at our partners, our colleagues in the industry. Even if we were to move to Lviv, for example, or Ivano-Frankivsk with the help of someone, we would face the problem of people. Not all people would want to move to these regions. But it is almost impossible to find specialists in these regions," added Polituchyi.

Printing house destroyed and 50 thousand books burned, says Zelenskyy

Commenting on yesterday's Russian attack on the Kharkiv region, the President of Ukraine emphasized that people were killed and wounded.

"Russian terrorists are killing adults and children, destroying towns and villages, leaving scorched spots where once there was a normal life," the president said in his official telegram channel.

He also announced how many books were destroyed as a result of the missile strike on May 23.

"Yesterday's Russian strike on the Kharkiv region, which killed and injured people, destroyed a printing house and burned 50,000 books, demonstrates that Russia is at war with humanity and all aspects of normal life," Zelenskyy emphasized.

He added that the Russian terror must lose, and only one thing is needed for this - "the determination of world leaders." 

On Thursday, May 23, Russia launched a missile attack on Kharkiv, hitting one of the largest printing houses in Europe, Factor-Druk, where books from almost all Ukrainian publishing companies are printed. The strike killed 7 people and injured 21 others.

Factor-Druk is a printing house that is part of the Factor group of companies. Vivat publishing house and Vivat bookstores are also part of the holding, but the printing house also produced books for other publishers. The Family Leisure Club publishing house has also confirmed that it prints many of its books at Factor-Druk. British Ambassador to Ukraine Martin Harris responded to the Russian attack on the printing house. He said that Ukrainians buy its books to support the publishing house. Martin Harris also joined the impromptu action.

On the afternoon of May 23, a series of explosions occurred in Kharkiv and the region. As a result, people were killed and injured. As of 12:50 p.m., there are 6 dead and 16 wounded. Russia launched at least 15 attacks on the city, preliminarily with S-300 missiles.

The International Renaissance Foundation announced that it has decided to provide an emergency grant from its reserve funds to the Vivat printing house in Kharkiv.