Books in Ruins: How Russia attacks Ukrainian culture

During the war, the Russian military have been systematically harming Ukrainian culture by killing cultural activists and destroying the objects of Ukrainian heritage. Thousands of Ukrainian libraries are now under constant threat of shelling and looting by the Russian armed forces. Russia’s recent attack against the biggest library in the Kherson region has proved the deliberate character of extermination of Ukrainian culture.

In this infographic, based on the actual research by the National Yaroslav the Wise Library of Ukraine, we will review the Russian aggression’s impact on Ukrainian libraries from February 24, 2022, to September 30, 2023. The accurate extent of destruction is still unknown because many libraries remain under temporary occupation. Thus, for example, in its official statistics, Russia ascribes 229 Ukrainian libraries of the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions to itself. At the same time, no information about the libraries in the Luhansk region is available.

The percentage calculations are based on the recent research by the National Yaroslav the Wise Library of Ukraine, which monitors the state of public libraries in the time of Russia’s military aggression. The number of libraries according to the regions is available under the link.  

Many libraries in the frontline regions continue working in spite of the fact that they have lost a significant part of their collections. To support such libraries, PEN Ukraine has been systematically collecting new books in Ukrainian and English languages for them since June 2022. Within the Unbreakable Libraries project, supported by our foreign partners, Ukrainian publishers, and non-indifferent Ukrainians, we have already passed 12,000 books to the damaged libraries. To join the project, you can find out the details here.