Vladimir Grigoriev, head of the press and book industry support department at the Digital Development Ministry, said strikes on Ozon and Wildberries warehouses destroyed 15 million books, with total losses to the publishing industry estimated at 6 billion rubles, Kommersant reported.
Yevgeny Kapyev, general director of publisher Eksmo, said the final number of lost books could rise to 20 million.
Grigoriev said the industry is exploring the possibility of introducing a reduced value-added tax of 5% for one year. Eksmo has proposed lowering VAT on printed materials, banning the restoration of VAT on destroyed goods, allowing their full cost to be written off as expenses, and providing soft loans to replenish working capital.
Boris Kuznetsov, general director of publisher Rosman, said a reduced VAT would not save the industry but would provide some support.
Ukrainian drones began attacking Wildberries warehouses in mid-June. According to The Moscow Times, 23 warehouses in 16 regions have been hit since July 18. Ukraine's Defense Ministry said it had fully disabled seven of the marketplace's ten largest hubs, including the biggest one in Koledino outside Moscow. Since August 22, attacks have also targeted Ozon warehouses.
Analysts at Data Insight estimated Wildberries' direct losses from lost infrastructure by mid-August at 147–223 billion rubles. Seller losses, according to their data, totaled 445–507 billion rubles. Ozon's damage from the attacks, analysts estimated, could reach 30–62.5 billion rubles, with its sellers losing 88.5–107 billion rubles.
Ukrainian publishers said more than 10 million books have been destroyed in recent months as a result of Russian attacks. In particular, the Kharkiv children's literature publisher lost about eight million copies in an attack on August 1.