Following Russian Federation’s strike on "Konvi" printing house, over half million books were destroyed, with losses estimated at $7.5 million, - media. PHOTO

As a result of the Russian missile attack on Kyiv on the night of 19 July, one of Ukraine’s three largest printing works – ‘Konvi’ – was destroyed. The strike destroyed over half a million books and textbooks, and preliminary losses are estimated at nearly 7.5 million dollars.

According to Censor.NET, citing a report by NV, Viktoria Haidai, commercial director of the ‘Konvi’ printing house, described the extent of the damage.

According to her, the company printed up to 800,000 books every month. Its clients included the publishing houses "Ranok", "Gramota", "Litera LTD", "Lingvist", "Knyholav", "Laboratoriia", "Artbooks", "ASSA", "Kalamar", "Atena", "Aston", "Bukshef", MISON, "Vyshcha Shkola", "Medytsyna", "Apriori" and others.

As a result of the strike, 260,000 finished school textbooks were completely burnt, along with a further 150,000 semi-finished products, from which textbooks were due to be produced in the near future. Around 190,000–200,000 copies of commercial book print runs were also damaged or destroyed.

"The scale of the losses is staggering. The print run of finished textbooks that was burnt amounts to 260,000 at present. There were also 150,000 semi-finished products… And around 200,000 commercial print runs were affected," said Haidai.

According to preliminary estimates, the building was struck by an S-400 missile equipped with shrapnel. As a result of the strike, the third floor of the printing works was completely destroyed, and the production facilities, offices, storage areas and expensive printing equipment were burnt out. Some of the premises were also flooded during the fire-fighting operation.

The preliminary total of the losses amounts to nearly 7.5 million dollars. This includes the loss of equipment, paper stocks and other company assets.

Ukrainian publishing houses whose products were stored in ‘Konvi’s’ warehouses also suffered losses. These include ‘Gramota’, ‘Litera’, ‘Lingvist’, ‘Ranok’, ‘Artbooks’, ‘Laboratoriia’ and others. The premises of the fledgling publishing house MISON were also completely burnt out.

Viktoria Haidai emphasised that the strike was not directed at a military facility, but at a company that had been printing Ukrainian textbooks and children’s literature for many years.