Russian strikes on Ukrainian printing houses and warehouses destroyed more than 13 million newly printed books this past summer, inflicting at least 1.75 billion UAH in direct losses on an industry that had been experiencing a post-2022 resurgence.
To help the sector recover, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, the KSE Foundation (the charitable arm of the Kyiv School of Economics), the Ukrainian Book Institute, and the International Book Arsenal Festival have partnered to launch a new grant program. The initiative aims to raise $500,000 specifically to support small independent publishers that release up to 20 new titles a year.
Applications for the inaugural grant cycle will open in November 2026.
“Russia is deliberately targeting Ukraine’s literary infrastructure. Every printed book reinforces our cultural resilience,” said Tetyana Berezhna, Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture of Ukraine. “It is vital that we back small publishers. They are often the first to discover new voices, tackle important themes, and drive literary diversity. This program gives them the runway to keep operating, release new works, and replace inventory lost to Russian bombardment.”
Small presses serve as crucial incubators for literary and typographical experimentation. The primary goal of the Small Publishers Support Program is to safeguard these independent houses, giving them the runway to publish their planned catalogs and maintain long-term financial viability.
“Small publishers are the most vulnerable link in the supply chain,” noted Bohdana Laiuk, Deputy Minister of Culture. “We are seeing a surge of international attention surrounding the destruction of Ukraine’s book sector. Our goal is to channel that momentum into a transparent, straightforward grant program. If successful, we hope to expand it next year.”
The grants will directly cover manufacturing costs, requiring no matching funds from recipients. A single grant can cover printing costs for multiple titles, including reprints of books destroyed in attacks as well as previously unpublished works.
“For the KSE Foundation, it is critical to support sectors where people can create, build knowledge, and realize their ideas right here in Ukraine,” said Svitlana Denysenko, Director of the Kyiv School of Economics Charitable Foundation. “Following the loss of over 13 million books, helping publishers retain their talent and maintain operations is just as essential as replacing destroyed stock.”
The first round aims to fund at least 20 small publishers. The KSE Foundation will administer both the fundraising drive and the grant distribution, providing full financial reporting to donors.
Donations to the Small Publishers Support Program can be made at:
https://foundation.kse.ua/projects/pidtrymka-malykh-ukrainskykh-vydavnytstv/
The Ministry of Culture is simultaneously developing broader relief measures to protect the literary ecosystem and maintain public access to books. These include rent subsidies for brick-and-mortar bookstores, the resumption of state library acquisitions, and the expansion of the “eBook” (єКнига) initiative to reach new demographics. In collaboration with the Ministry of Economy, efforts are also underway to grant publishing enterprises access to national recovery mechanisms, including low-interest loans and war-risk insurance.