PEN Ukraine’s book warehouse damaged by a Russian missile strike

Tonight, Russians once again launched a massive missile attack on Ukraine. And once again we made sure that they deliberately destroy our lives and our culture.

On the night of July 3-4, PEN Ukraine’s warehouse in Kyiv was damaged, 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.

"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 with books in the warehouse, which equals to about 11,000 copies. We are now assessing the level of damage and the condition of books," says Maksym Sytnikov, PEN Ukraine’s executive director.

This warehouse has been with PEN since November 2023. It was then that we received the first, and a year later the second tranche of aid from the UK, including books from Book Aid International with the support of PEN International, English PEN, and Pineapple Lane Publishing House.

From this warehouse, in partnership with the Humanitarian Nova Poshta, we sent and personally delivered more than 45,000 books in English and bilingual English-Ukrainian language books to over 250 libraries in 17 regions of Ukraine.

Our goal is to resume delivering books that libraries are waiting for as soon as possible, so we will definitely keep you updated.