On 28 August, a Russian attack drone struck a book warehouse in Kyiv, where stock from Readeat, Book.ua and a number of Ukrainian publishers was stored. The strike caused a fire that destroyed thousands of copies. Readeat founder Dmytro Feliksov said the service had temporarily suspended the dispatch of orders.
Briefly about the main points
- A Russian drone struck a book warehouse in Kyiv directly.
- The fire destroyed thousands of books.
- Readeat did not dispatch any orders on 28 August.
- Through BookTicket, the warehouse supplied a network of publishers and bookshops.
- The extent of the losses and the list of affected publishers are currently being compiled.
A fire halted Readeat’s dispatch
A fire broke out at the site following the strike. According to Feliksova, thousands of books were burnt; the final total of damaged stock and the financial losses are still being calculated.
Readeat has announced that it will not be dispatching orders on 28 August.
The warehouse served as a joint logistics hub for the book market
The BookTicket platform, which was also founded by Feliksov, operates as a distribution system for bookshops and publishers. Its model involves a single warehouse, stock management, order processing and delivery.
According to BookTicket, over 250 publishers and more than 100 bookshops collaborate via the platform, and products from hundreds of suppliers are held in stock. Book.ua reports that it has partnerships with more than 300 publishers from Ukraine and around the world.
Due to the nature of this inventory, disruptions may affect the availability of book titles at partner outlets and order fulfilment times.
The blows suffered in July and August have already caused significant losses to publishers
On 2 July, a Russian attack destroyed Denka Logistics« central warehouse, where around 800,000 BookChef books were destroyed. On the night of 19 July, the warehouse of the »Knygolav« publishing house, containing approximately 250,000 books, was destroyed; MISON and the »Konvi’ Group’s printing works were also hit in the same attack.
In early August, a drone attacked the warehouse of the «Ranok» publishing house in Kharkiv. The fire engulfed around 10,000 square metres and destroyed the stock of several publishing houses and retail chains. On 16 August in Kyiv, the offices and warehouses of «Nash Format», «Laboratoriya», BookChef and other publishers near Pochaina were damaged.
As of 6 August, the Ukrainian Publishers’ Association estimated the book industry’s losses since May at approximately 9.65 million damaged or destroyed copies and at least 1.19 billion hryvnias in direct losses. The latest attack is not included in this figure.
Readeat had already sustained damage during the attack on Kyiv
On 28 August 2025, a blast wave damaged the Readeat bookshop on Antonovych Street: the windows were shattered, and the books and equipment were covered in dust and debris.
This time, the damage was to stock in the warehouse. The final list of publishers whose books were destroyed, the total number of copies lost and the extent of the damage are currently being determined.
