Russia’s aerial attacks destroyed more than 1.5 million books in July, the Ukrainian Book Institute says. Overnight attacks cut off power to part of Crimea, trigger a fire at a supermarket warehouse. Putin’s approval falls to the lowest level since 2021, Newsweek says.
Russia’s aerial attacks destroyed more than 1.5 million books in July, Ukrainian Book Institute says
Russian aerial strikes against Ukraine destroyed more than 1.5 million books in July alone, the Ukrainian Book Institute said in a post to Facebook on Monday.
“Russia destroyed more than 1.5 million books in July alone! These are targeted [efforts] to destroy the Ukrainian culture, knowledge and memory,” the statement reads.
A Russian missile strike on Kyiv overnight on Sunday, July 19, heavily damaged a printing facility owned by the Konvi group and the office of the Arc.ua publishing house.
Commercial director of the Konvi group, Viktoria Hayday said the company’s printing house is one of Ukraine’s largest facilities that print school books.
“Luckily, no employees were hurt during the attack. But as a result of a Russian ballistic missile strike huge workshops were left with no roof, the equipment in the printing and bookbinding premises was either destroyed or exposed to water, and the offices were burned out,” Hayday said in a post to Facebook on Monday.
Almost 250,000 school books for the ninth grade that the company had ready to send to schools were destroyed. Unfinished materials for around 350,000 books, including school books for the fourth grade, were also damaged, she added.
The printing houses that sustained damage include Ranok, Hramota, Litera LTD, Linhvist, #knyholav, Laboratoria, Artbooks, ACCA, Kalamar, Atena, Aston, Bookchef, MISON, Vyshcha Shkola, Medytsyna, Apriori and others.
The MISON publishing house was supposed to present its first book titled “Museum of Family Stories” (Muzei Rodynnykh Istoriy) by Olena Skulovatova on July 20. The attack damaged 200 copies of the book, leaving most of the print run intact, co-owners of the publishing house, Inna and Oleksandr Pakholyuk said. They decided not to postpone the book’s presentation and promised to send the book to everyone who had preordered it.
Knyholav publishing house said almost 250,000 of its books had been destroyed in a Russian missile strike on Sunday.
Overnight attacks cut off power to part of Crimea, trigger fire at supermarket warehouse
Alleged Ukrainian aerial attacks overnight on Tuesday cut off power to part of Crimea and triggered a fire at a large warehouse for products of a supermarket chain, Telegram channel Crimean Wind (Krymskyi Veter) said.
A powerful explosion rocked the area surrounding the city of Yalta at around 4a.m. local time, leaving the peninsula’s southern coast without power.
A fire reportedly erupted at a large warehouse for products of the “Produkty u Doma” supermarket chain in the village of Chystenke near Simferopol. These reports require confirmation, Crimean Wind said.
The “Produkty u Doma” chain operates since 2015 based on the assets seized from Ukraine’s ATB supermarkets in Crimea. It has 170 shops in 56 cities and towns across the peninsula, and a shop in Russia’s Krasnodar region. It sells both food and non-food products.
Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces struck seven Russian shadow fleet vessels in the Black and Azov seas as well as seven power nodes and substations in Crimea overnight on Monday, the branch’s commander, Major Robert “Magyar” Brovdi said in a post to social media.
Putin’s approval falls to lowest level since 2021, Newsweek says
Putin’s approval rating is dipping against a backdrop of Russia’s protracted war against Ukraine, tightening internet censorship and the country’s fuel crisis, Newsweek said on Monday. The paragraphs below are quoted from the article.
The latest data from Russia’s Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), a 100 percent state-owned entity, put Putin’s approval rating at 65.1 percent on July 12, with 23.4 percent of Russians openly disapproving of his work as president. Polls by independent Russian organizations Levada and Public Opinion Foundation return similar results.
Since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the presidential approval poll has generally floated between the high-70s and mid-80s. Even in September 2025, after a punishing summer for Russia’s forces in Ukraine, his approval rating sat at 77.8 percent. The last time Putin’s approval ratings were this low was 2021, when Russia was in the throes of COVID pandemic misery and economic stagnation, and protesters were still demonstrating in support of Alexei Navalny. Now, after nearly four and a half years of full-scale war and a series of domestic policies designed to keep said war sputtering on, the unwritten social contract between Putin and his people is beginning to break down.
Earlier this year, the Russian president began turning the screw, handing Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, sweeping powers to regulate the Russian internet and crack down on third-party and foreign apps. The likes of WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook and Instagram found themselves blocked or broken. All this to force Russians onto a state-backed messaging app, known as MAX.
That is, until Apple removed MAX from the App Store in June, followed by Google removing MAX from the Play Store last week.
Suddenly, millions of Russians were unable to download the state-backed platform designed to replace all alternatives. Those who had already downloaded it could not receive updates, causing untold disruption to the personal and professional lives of citizens.
Investigative journalist and Russian technology expert at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, Maria Kolomychenko, told Newsweek that the Russian government is relaxing some internet restrictions to get a handle on rising discontent, but with little success. This is especially important because State Duma elections will take place this autumn, and the Kremlin wants to demonstrate, both domestically and internationally, that the ruling party, United Russia, remains overwhelmingly popular.
“The fuel crisis triggered by Ukrainian strikes has generated fear and uncertainty across Russian society,” Kolomychenko said. (…) the destruction of key energy infrastructure by Ukrainian drones presents a much sharper, more tangible problem – shortages, brutal queues, and the very real prospect of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“The fuel crisis triggered by Ukrainian strikes has generated fear and uncertainty across Russian society,” Kolomychenko said.
