Russia attacked Kharkiv and the region with 15 missiles: the printing house was hit

On May 23, 2024, Russian forces launched missile strikes on Kharkiv and the city of Liubotyn in the Kharkiv region. The enemy targeted the civilian infrastructure: residential buildings, the park area, and the printing house. According to preliminary information, Russia used S-300/S-400 missiles.

As of 2.00 p.m., at least seven citizens were killed and 17 more were injured in Kharkiv and the region due to the Russian shelling, reported Ihor Klymenko, Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

Update: The number of injured victims has increased to 21 people according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

In particular, Russia hit the printing house in Kharkiv: one of the missiles flew directly into the production workshop. Later, the Director of Vivat, Yuliia Orlova, confirmed in a comment to Ukrainska Pravda that the hit occurred at the printing house “Faktor-Druk”, which belongs to the Vivat publishing company. As a result, there are wounded and killed among employees.

The Vivat publishing company, founded in 2013, specializes in producing books by such Ukrainian writers as Dara Kornii, Andrii Kokotiukha, Artem Chekh, Vakhtanh Kipiani, Nadiia Herbish, Halyna Kruk, Mark Livin, Oksana Moroz, etc. Vivat also cooperates with well-known global publishing houses, such as Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette Book Group, and Macmillan Publishers.

Later, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy specified that approximately 50,000 books were burned due to the Russian missile strike on the printing house. 

Furthermore, the civilian railway infrastructure in Kharkiv and the region was damaged during the Russian missile attack. As the Ukrainian railway company Ukrzaliznytsia informed, six railroad workers were injured.

“Russian terrorists are taking advantage of Ukraine’s lack of sufficient air defense protection and reliable capability to destroy terrorist launchers at their exact locations, which are close to our borders. And this weakness is not ours, but the world’s, which has not dared to deal with terrorists in the way they deserve for three years. Terror must lose everywhere, under any conditions, and on all continents,” commented President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on another Russian terrorist act on X(Twitter).

Zelenskyy also emphazised that this is “our shared responsibility – to protect life from terror”. According to the Ukrainian President, Ukraine is “doing everything it can”, but at the same time “needs more determination from world leaders”.