A printing house in Kharkiv destroyed by russian missiles

They were killed at their workplace while printing books, magazines, and newspapers. Russia fired three missiles at the printing house in Kharkiv. Seven workers were killed (five women and two men), and 15 more were injured.

From 10:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. on May 23, the occupying army made 15 strikes on Kharkiv and its suburbs. The target was the Faktor-Druk printing shop. Over 1,000 square meters of the enterprise’s 4,000 square meters were destroyed.

As reported by the publishing house, Faktor-Druk is the largest full-cycle printing complex in Europe, in which almost all publishing houses of Ukraine are printed; the company has been running its history since 1996.

Serhii Polituchyi, the founder and president of the Faktor Group, which includes Faktor-Druk, published the first comment on the tragedy: “I express my condolences to the families of the victims. Currently, we are trying to find out the number of employees who need our help, and the company will compensate for the costs of their treatment. We will also support the families of the victims. We are still determining the amount of material losses as a result of the missile strike.”

Currently, information about material and human losses and the extent of destruction is being clarified. At the time of the attack, more than fifty employees were working on a shift in the printing house.

At the site of the shelling, the head of the police of the Kharkiv Region, Volodymyr Tymoshko, said that the strikes on the printing house were made with the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system. Two missiles hit the shop directly; another hit the area nearby.

Until the last moment, the rescuers believed that the workers, who were considered missing, would be found alive. But unfortunately, the bodies of the dead were found in the fire.

“Due to the strong fire, the bodies of the victims were badly burned; only two could be identified. Now we are doing everything to promptly establish the identities of five more victims; we have already started work with DNA samples,” Serhii Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the Kharkiv Regional Police, wrote on Facebook.

The Vivat publishing house announced an appeal to support the team of the destroyed printing house: “Now open your books on the last pages – and see how many of them are printed at Faktor-Druk. We promise you’ll be surprised how many there are. If you want to support typography, take a photo of these books and post them on your social networks. Publishing houses and bookstores can also join in.”

Kharkiv Journalists’ Solidarity Center of NUJU