The State Service for Special Communications blocked the website of a famous bookstore in Kolomyia at the request of the SBU. The owner learned about this from dev.ua: here's what's really happening

«Providers of electronic communications networks and/or services may, in a technically feasible manner, temporarily restrict access to the Internet resource: knygy.com.ua (IP address 193.42.111.67),» the document states.

According to Similar Web site knygy.com.ua had 44,000 visitors in May 2025.

We called the store to find out the reason for the ban, but it turned out they didn’t know anything about it.

«This is the first I’ve heard about this from you,» a store employee named Alexander replied, and then asked for details about the order so he could pass this information on to the owner.

Why was the site restricted?

The order states: «…for the purposes of defense and security of the state in conditions of an emergency, strategic or martial law, approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated January 24, 2025 No. 75, on the appeal of the Security Service of Ukraine.»

The bookstore «Knyzhkova Khata» is well known to all Kolomyia residents, writes the local media outlet «Informator Kolomyia», noting that «everyone wants to read books in Ukrainian. Even the displaced people say they don’t want Russian books anymore.»

At the same time, the bookstore’s website has a «Russian literature» section, where you can still purchase books in the language of the aggressor state.

UPD. 04.07.2025 10:00

After the publication of the material, the owner of the bookstore, Ivan Maksimov, called us, who explained why Russian literature is still present on the site.

According to him, the site was created by his son around the 2000s, the bookstore itself has been operating in the city since 1985 and is located in a historic 19th-century building.

The site is designed primarily for city residents so that they can see online what books are available and new releases. Russian-language books are not sold in the store, but books from the 2000s remain on the site. That is, you can add new ones, but not remove old ones.

«In 2021, my son and his family moved to the USA. Since then, I have been working on the site, but I don’t know how to remove those books from there. I am already that old — almost 70 years old. Even if the books are sold or missing, they can be on this site. «Well, how are there Russian books in Kolomyia?! Now I will contact my son to remove these books from the site. He works a lot, but I hope he will find time to fix it or teach me how to remove them,» said Ivan Maksimiv.

The bookstore owner will also contact the relevant state bodies to resolve this issue.

Restrictions on the sale and distribution of Russian books

Currently, books in Russian on the markets are mostly either old stocks or pirated reprints, book market experts say, writes RBC-Ukraine.

Books from Russia and Belarus are prohibited from being imported and distributed. In bookstores, more than half of the assortment must be in Ukrainian. Publishing houses must also publish at least 50% of books in Ukrainian.

«In Ukraine, there are no restrictions on the language of the original. The state takes into account the author of the work. For example, publish Pushkin, Tolstoy, Andrei Platonov or Sergei Dovlatov — please, at least in the original, at least in translation. But the works of Akunin, as a citizen of the Russian Federation, cannot be published in either Russian or Ukrainian. There is already a consensus in society on this: there should be more books in Ukrainian,» explains Yuriy Marchenko, head of the department of strategic work and analytics at the Ukrainian Institute of the Book.

According to the reports of the language ombudsman, it becomes clear that from time to time, violators are caught, both among bookstores and among publishers.

«If you see a book in Russian at some market, where it is indicated that the place of printing is Kazakhstan or Moldova, then with a high probability the book was printed somewhere in a garage,» Marchenko explains.

How many books were published in Russian this year?

In June, the State Committee of Ukraine for Television reported that in the first half of 2025, about 10% of books and brochures were published in a foreign language, including 1,7% in Russian.

«The share of books in Russian by title is 106 editions, or 1,7% of the total number of registered books and brochures in 2025, by circulation — 0,3%. This is less than for the corresponding period of 2023 and 2024, which indicates compliance by the vast majority of publishers with the Law of Ukraine „On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language“, as well as a decrease in demand in Ukrainian society for books in the language of the aggressor state,» the State Committee reports.