A school year in Ukraine under fire: over 1.2 million books destroyed ahead of new school year

Ahead of the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, the destruction of Ukraine’s school textbooks offers a stark reminder of how war continues to disrupt children’s education.

AS UKRAINIAN CHILDREN returned to school this month, thousands were beginning a new academic year without a textbook on their desk, something that should have been ordinary.

Over the summer of 2026, Russian attacks struck Ukrainian printing facilities, publishing houses and book warehouses, destroying millions of books. According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science, among them were more than 1.2 million school textbooks prepared for Ukrainian children for the 2026–2027 school year.

The scale of the losses is significant. According to data provided by Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science, the destruction of school textbooks represents an estimated $2.7 million in direct production costs across eight publishers. More than 95 per cent of the destroyed textbooks were for Grade 9 and Grade 4, key years in the implementation of Ukraine’s New Ukrainian School reform.

The timing could hardly be more difficult. The attacks came as publishers were working to print and deliver millions of textbooks before the start of the school year.

In July, a Russian missile strike hit the Konvi printing facility near Kyiv, where production was being scaled up for the new school year. The plant was expected to produce around 1.3 million books: approximately 10% of Ukraine’s schoolbook requirement. The BBC reported that more than 35 publishing and printing facilities had been hit in recent weeks, as Russia’s attacks increasingly affected the infrastructure behind Ukraine’s book production and distribution.

Then, on 1 August, a Russian attack hit the Central Logistics Center of the Ranok publishing group in Kharkiv. The strike destroyed the ready-to-ship textbook stock stored there. While the company’s core printing machinery remained intact, the loss of finished books created another major disruption to the chain between publishers and schools. The Ministry’s contingency plan identifies the July and August attacks as having damaged both production capacity and post-production distribution.

By the end of August approximately 12 million books had been destroyed in attacks across Ukraine, including books held in warehouses and those being produced for the new school year. The destruction has affected not only publishers and businesses, but also the cultural and educational infrastructure that allows Ukrainian children to learn from Ukrainian-language materials.

For schools, however, the immediate concern is much more practical: will children have the books they need when lessons begin?

As the new school year begins, Ukrainian children are returning to classrooms already shaped by air-raid alarms, damaged schools and interrupted learning. Now, even the textbooks meant to accompany them throughout the school year have become casualties of war.

On the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, Finn Church Aid (FCA) calls for continued support to protect children’s right to learn and to ensure that education can continue, even in the midst of war. Replacing destroyed textbooks is not only about restoring what has been lost, but also about making sure that every child in Ukraine can start the school year with the tools they need to learn, grow and build their future.