Kyiv: Viktor Kruhlov, director of Ranok, one of Ukraine's largest children's publishers, struggled to hold back tears as he watched pile after pile of his books turn to ash.
A Russian drone strike on Ranok's warehouse in the northeastern city of Kharkiv on August 1 destroyed about 8 million books, the biggest blow yet to Ukraine's publishing industry during the four-year-old war.
Publishers say more than 10 million books have been destroyed in attacks on warehouses in recent months, threatening an industry that initially benefited from rising demand for Ukrainian-language literature at the start of the conflict.
As firefighters battled the blaze, Kruhlov said the first explosion at the warehouse was followed moments later by a second at the same spot.
"This was a deliberately planned attack against the book warehouse," said Kruhlov, whose company prints around one-third of the textbooks used in Ukrainian schools.
Russia's defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
The attacks on book warehouses and printing houses have resonated deeply in a country where many see the war as a fight for national survival and identity. Education Minister Andrii Butenko described them as an attempt to destroy the Ukrainian language, history and memory, "everything from which the identity of our children grows."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly questioned Ukraine's separate statehood and argued that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.