During the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, the city libraries of Mariupol lost 380,000 books. Victoria Lisohor, the head of the communal institution “Central City Public Library of the Mariupol City Council with Branches” and the director of the central library named after Korolenko, told the story about the events. 

In Mariupol, before the full-scale war, there were 15 city libraries with 52,000 readers. The central library was the main one and worked for two buildings. The director of the network lived for ten days in the book storage of her native library. She was able to leave the city, which was razed to the ground by the occupiers, and three days later the library was destroyed by a Russian airstrike. Ms. Victoria has been living in Dnipro for almost a year. She learned from her colleagues that there are 5 libraries in occupied Mariupol, but all Ukrainian books are thrown away by the Russians. 

Therefore, the director began to revive the Mariupol book collection in evacuation. Since last fall, she has organized an action to restore the fund. It already has two thousand books. Moreover, with it, she plans to return to Mariupol, liberated from the Russian invaders.