Kharkiv printing house, destroyed by Russian shelling, resumes work

The Kharkiv printing house “Factor-Druk,” which was destroyed by a Russian missile strike on 23 May this year, is resuming operations.

According to Radio Liberty, the printing house has restarted some of its operations.

“Right now, the main thing we can do is print. We printed ‘History of Ukraine’, ‘World History’, ‘Physics’, ‘Art’, and many textbooks in general. Before, it was for 7th grade, and now we’re printing for 1st-2nd grade,” General Director Tetyana Hryniuk said.

The Russian troops hit “Factor-Druk” during a massive shelling of Kharkiv on 23 May. According to police data, the Russian troops presumably used an S-300 complex, with three missiles hitting the workshop and adjacent territory.

The printed books are then sent to other printing houses for cover production. According to Hryniuk, the bookbinding workshop, which was completely destroyed by the missile, has undergone demolition and installation work, with the roof, ceiling, and walls restored. Repaired machines have been assembled in the surviving part of the workshop, awaiting completion of repairs to the rest of the facility.

Hryniuk said that the current damage estimate from the Russian strike is 10 million euros ($11 mn).

“But that’s not all. Because we’re still counting, still finding things we’ve lost. So the damages will be even greater,” she said.

The attack not only destroyed equipment but also resulted in loss of life. “We lost both machines and people. So there was no one to teach and nothing to teach on,” Hryniuk explained.

Factor-Druk was a major player in the Ukrainian publishing industry, printing books for Vivat, KSD, Ranok, Folio, Svichado, Zeleny Pes, and other publishers. The Russian missile strike resulted in seven deaths and the destruction of 50,000 books.

Serhiy Polituchyi, the owner of the “Factor-Druk” printing complex, said at the time that the strike could reduce the publishing market’s capacity by 40%.

The United States, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), reported it would fund the printing of textbooks for primary school students in Ukraine. US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on 24 June that USAID funding would enable the printing of more than three million textbooks for primary school students before the start of the next academic year.

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