The latest casualty of Russia’s four-year war in Ukraine might not show up on in lists of the dead and wounded, but the loss is nonetheless felt heavily within the country.
Vladimir Putin is now attempting to destroy Ukrainian morale through strikes on publishing warehouses, book markets and distribution centres.
The strategy, which has seen more than 10 million books destroyed in the last two months, is part of Russia’s wider campaign to eliminate Ukrainian culture.
Just like during the Soviet era in Eastern Europe, Ukrainians in occupied territories are banned from speaking their native language, and Russian passports are a requirement for access to public services.
But analysts say the attempt to erase Ukrainian identity has the opposite of its intended effect, with civilians more determined than ever to resist in the face of “cultural genocide”.
Nepal flash flood: Hundreds feared trapped in tunnels
As the death toll from last week’s flash flood in the Himalayas rises above 900, rescuers are trying to reach over 600 workers thought to be trapped in tunnels and underground areas at hydropower projects in the region.
Tunnel rescue operations
Urgent operations are underway to reach the hundreds of workers believed to be trapped in tunnels across six hydropower projects. Many are thought to be inside the Upper Trishuli 1, Trishuli 3A, and Trishuli 3B sites.
Rescuers intensified their efforts on Monday, using controlled blasts to create holes in the hillsides and gain access to tunnels at the major electricity sites. Some survivors had previously been rescued from tunnels on Friday and Saturday, officials said.
Thousands still missing
- Six days later, at least 939 people have died, say authorities in Nepal.
- Some 11,379 people have been rescued, meanwhile.
- An estimated 3,925 others remained missing on Monday.
- That includes 33 Britons and some 639 hydropower workers.
3 min read
Wall of mud triggers catastrophe
Last Wednesday morning, a glacial collapse near the Nepal-Tibet border triggered a wall of water, mud and other debris, which caused “catastrophic impacts downstream”.
6 min read
90,000 affected
- The Red Cross has estimated that over 90,000 people are likely to have been affected by the disaster.
- Officials in Nepal have said many bodies recovered so far were “in a state of decomposition and are no longer identifiable”.
- In Tibet, the official death toll is 16 with 546 others reported missing, per Chinese state media.
Watch more from The i Paper
The UK is providing £5m to help Nepal with response efforts, and a rapid response team consisting of specially trained crisis response staff arrived on Saturday to help support British nationals.
However, people waiting for news on missing loved ones say they are “losing faith”.
3 min read
4 min read
Watch more from The i Paper
Cyprus ferry capsize: at least eight dead and 18 missing
At least eight people have died and 18 others remain missing after a passenger ferry carrying 267 people capsized and sank off the coast of Northern Cyprus on Sunday.
The ship’s captain and crew are among several individuals who have been arrested.
What happened?
The privately owned ferry, , had been scheduled to travel from the popular holiday resort of Kyrenia in Northern Cyprus to the town of Tasucu in Turkey on Saturday, but poor weather conditions delayed its journey.
- The vessel left Kyrenia around 12.30pm local time (10.30am BST) on Sunday.
- Two waves hit the boat before it capsized, local officials told the media.
- The boat began taking on water as the captain struggled to recover.
- Some passengers wearing life jackets climbed atop the boat’s upturned hull.
- Rescue operations began involving coastguard boats and helicopters.
- The ferry has since completely sunk, reportedly to a depth of 514m (1,686ft).
Survivors’ recall sinking
“The vessel had been moving very badly. It was constantly lifting out of the water and slamming back down. It was shaking violently.”
Efe Multici, a survivor of the incident, told : “Three or four minutes later, the ferry leapt high into the air, then came crashing down. The front left side burst open and water started pouring in.”
Hunt for black box
Authorities are trying to recover the black box recorder from the vessel, which sank about four miles from shore, to establish what happened. Filo Denizcilik, the company which operates , said it is “deeply saddened by the tragic accident”.
Local officials said the ship’s captain, seven crew members, and another man were arrested on Monday, while warrants have been issued for an additional seven people as an investigation continues.
A ‘great disaster’
Every aspect of this incident will be investigated. Even the slightest negligence will be revealed. Whoever is responsible, whether they are guilty or not, will not be spared. It is the responsibility of our state to fully illuminate all aspects of this great disaster, as well as to our people and families who have lost and their families.
Ünal Üstel, prime minister of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Eight dead, more missing
- Eight people were confirmed to have died as of Monday afternoon.
- Meanwhile, 19 people were being treated at hospitals.
- Rescuers are still searching for 18 others, including young children.
- A three-day period of national mourning has been announced.
2 min read
Parents of ill children need paid leave, commissioner says
Parents with seriously ill or disabled children should be entitled to paid leave, the children’s commissioner has said.
Dame Rachel de Souza said parents should not have to choose between “holding down a job and being by their child’s bedside”.
The commissoiner said parents have told her of the “impossible choices” they made “splitting time between caring for their seriously ill and disabled children and trying to hold down a job”.
3 min read
4 min read
What changes are being demanded?
The commissioner called for
12 weeks
of paid leave for parents of children with disabilities or serious mental or physical health conditions.
90 %
This paid leave should be at 90 per cent of normal pay to ease the pressure from lost earnings, she added.
Other reforms proposed
- De Souza said unpaid carer’s leave should be extended from five to 10 days a year.
- She also backed the introduction of “Hugh’s Law”, which proposes paid leave for parents of seriously or terminally ill children.
- Paid leave must be part of wider NHS and children’s social care reform, the commissioner added.
- The Government is consulting on paid leave for unpaid carers and parents in these circumstances.
We should never force parents to choose between holding down a job and being by their child’s bedside.
De Souza said reform is needed to better support children and families who are “stuck” in hospital due to a lack of support.
A recent report by the commissioner found hundreds of children are in hospital unnecessarily on any given day as they do not have the right support to go home.
Books under attack
A missile strike on Konvi publishing house in Kyiv on Sunday night destroyed more than 1.3 million schoolbooks, 10 per cent of those required nationwide, just two days before schools reopen on 1 September. This marked the second attack on the publisher in six weeks, after a strike on 19 July destroyed more than 250,000 school books and the materials for 350,000 more.
According to estimates by the culture ministry, more than 10 million copies of books were destroyed in Ukraine in July and August 2026. This accounts for a third of the annual book production.
A fire broke out Ukraine’s largest second-hand book market in Kyiv after strikes overnight on 16 August, with hundreds of stalls damaged. These attacks come amid a dramatic increase on long-range strikes in Ukraine, with 437 civilians killed across the country and 2,610 injured in July according to the UN – the highest number recorded killed since May 2022.
Attacks on booksellers’ infrastructure date back to the very beginning of the war, according to Yuri Marchenko, head of analytics at the Ukrainian Book Institute, but the scale has increased dramatically as strikes have ramped up.
Marchenko told The i Paper: “Since the summer of 2026, the book industry’s losses have increased tenfold, as the enemy shifted to the tactic of destroying logistical infrastructure – publishers’ warehouses, distribution centres, and fulfillment services.
“Over 50 publishers and about 10 bookstore chains and independent bookstores have reported losses.”
Cultural genocide
The destruction of books is not a standalone campaign, but “makes perfect sense” as part of Russia’s wider war objective “to erase Ukraine as a country and Ukrainians as a nation”, according to Keir Giles, associate fellow of the Russia and Eurasia programme at Chatham House.
“Cultural genocide is an aim of the Russian campaign,” Giles said. “The whole reason why Russia went to war in the first place was the deluded belief that Ukraine does not exist.”
The Nazis burned tens of millions of books in an effort to extinguish Jewish culture and heritage.
In the occupied parts of Ukraine, where Russia can exert control over the civilian population, Ukrainian books have been removed from the shelves and people caught reading them can be punished by up to five years in prison.
Giles said: “Russia has a free hand to impose ‘Russianness’ on the victims there. That is where speaking Ukrainian is public punished… you don’t have access to healthcare or public services, such as they are, if you don’t accept a Russian passport. That’s where the erasure of the existence of Ukraine is proceeding rapidly while the war continues.”
This isn’t the first time the Ukrainian language has come under attack from Russia. Books in Ukrainian were banned by Russian leaders as far back as 1720, and the language was banned entirely in 1863. Whilst Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, Ukrainian dictionaries were banned and teachers of Russian received higher salaries to promote the language.
“Russia is reaching back into the grimmest parts of its past for how to expand its empire and recolonise places that it thinks should still be governed from Moscow,” Giles said. “Moscow and [St] Petersburg have routinely banned Ukrainian books altogether, so it’s really just a continuation of the same attitude to the existence of Ukrainians.”
Rather than bringing about Ukrainian surrender by grinding down morale, however, this tactic seems to be increasing domestic support for the war.
“The most keen to support Ukraine in its struggle to remain free [are those who] within living memory know what it means to be overrun by Russia and what suffering that inflicts on their populations,” Giles said.
A poll from early August showed 61 per cent of Ukrainians are prepared to support the war for as long as necessary.
“Their theories of victory appear to have come unstuck,” Giles said.
Outside of occupied territories, the use of the Ukrainian language has increased since the war began, with 87 per cent of Ukrainians considering it there native language a year into the war compared to 77 per cent the year before. Free Ukrainian courses are offered to both military personnel and civilians as part of the government’s “Switch to Ukrainian” initiative.
After the attack on 20 July, Konvi’s commercial director, Viktoriia Haidai, said in a statement: “The enemy’s goal is obvious — to treacherously disrupt the educational process in Ukraine and leave schoolchildren without books on the eve of September 1. They are fighting against the knowledge of our children and Ukrainian culture.
“But they cannot break us. We will endure and rebuild the printing house to continue providing children with everything necessary for learning.”