The destroyed library in the N building of the Sumy State University. Photo: Suspilne Sumy
In the library of Sumy State University (SSU), 15,000 books burned down in a Russian attack on 18 August. Since April 2025, when Russia struck the Congress Centre of SSU, the university has lost 45,000 books. A total of 60,000 volumes have been destroyed.
Source: Suspilne Sumy with reference to the director of the library in the N building
Details: The director said that these were the newest books purchased over the past 5-6 years.
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On the night of 17-18 August, Russian forces attacked Sumy State University with missiles and drones. As a result of the strikes, the main building was damaged and the new one burned down completely.
“It [the new N building – ed.] had stood abandoned for a long time, and about seven years ago we restored the classrooms, lecture halls and created a centre for shared equipment. Now we will have to move it elsewhere. The most valuable equipment? The most expensive is the diffractometer, five million hryvnias [US$120,000 – ed.]. Altogether, the equipment here is worth about twenty million [US$483,000 – ed.],” said senior engineer Olena Tkachenko in a comment to Suspilne.
The burned books in the SSU library
Photo: Suspilne Sumy
The new building also housed one of the university libraries, in which 15,000 books were destroyed.
Before that, on 13 April, Russian forces struck the historic centre of Sumy. Thirty-five people were killed. One of the SSU buildings and the Congress Centre were damaged by missiles, where a further 45,000 books were burned.
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