EU Publishers Condemn Russian Missile Attack on Kharkiv Printing House and Expand Cooperation with Ukrainian Counterparts
The Federation of European Publishers stands in solidarity with its Ukrainian colleagues and expresses its sincere condolences to the bereaved families and wishes courage to those affected by the Russian missile attacks, which destroyed one of Ukraine's largest printing houses on 23 May.
European publishers join the entire Ukrainian book community in their grief.
‘The bombs that killed seven people and destroyed thousands and thousands of books have only one goal - to destroy humanity. The European book community stands with Ukraine. We need to continue and increase cooperation with our Ukrainian colleagues,’ said FEP President Ricardo Franco Levi.
Factor-Print, which was destroyed by Russian missiles, is part of the same holding company as Vivat Publishing House.
‘We want to express our solidarity. We encourage everyone to buy Ukrainian books to distribute to IDPs in various European countries to ensure the necessary visibility of this vibrant literature,’ the statement reads.
FEP is actively working on the Tales of EUkraine project, supported by the European Creative Europe programme.
FEP is an independent, non-profit umbrella organisation for book publishers' associations in Europe. FEP represents 29 national associations of publishers, scholarly journals and educational materials of all formats in Europe. Since February 2022, FEP has invited the Ukrainian Association of Publishers and Booksellers to join.
As The Gaze previously reported, the Factor-Druk printing house, where several Ukrainian publishers printed their books, was destroyed in a terrorist attack on Kharkiv by Russian forces on 23 May. The missile attack killed seven people and injured 21. In addition, printing equipment and 50,000 books were destroyed.
