On the occasion of the World Book and Copyright Day, which is celebrated on April 23, First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska spoke about the development of her "Ukrainian Bookshelf" project, which includes the transfer of Ukrainian publications to the world's leading libraries. The books were received by the National Library of Armenia, the Library of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia, the Central Library of the Capital Library of Hungary, the Maribor Library of Slovenia, the Library of the Municipal Museum of Cyprus, and the City Library of Linköping in Sweden.
This became possible thanks to the donor support of the "Kyiv School of Economics" Charitable Foundation (about 4,000 books were given to 22 embassies).
In total, Ukrainian bookshelves under the patronage of the First Lady and with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ukrainian Book Institute have already opened in 37 countries: Austria, Türkiye, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, the Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Latvia, Finland, Jordan, Croatia, Lebanon, Japan, Belgium, Albania, Republic of Korea, Poland, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Norway, Moldova, Qatar, Slovenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Portugal, South Africa, Cyprus, UAE, Namibia, North Macedonia, Hungary, Indonesia and Armenia. 170 shelves have 44,000 publications.
In addition, the President's wife noted that the books were also subjected to Russian aggression. For example, at the London Book Fair, which was recently held in Great Britain, the Ukrainian stand displayed, in particular, furniture and items from destroyed Ukrainian libraries.
"Books are not only victims. They, like our entire culture, are our support. That is why nowadays it is very important that our publishers and publications participate in book fairs around the world, because it is an opportunity to tell through culture about our country and its resistance. In particular, it is particularly gratifying that at the annual Best Baltic Book Design competition, at which Ukraine became an invited country in 2023, one of the awards was won by our "Barrier-free Guide" - a unique publication about equality and correct interaction. This is another example of the fact that our values are shared by the entire free world," the First Lady emphasized.
Olena Zelenska noted that she personally supports the representation of Ukraine at international book fairs.
In particular, she took part in the Frankfurt Book Fair last year and delivered a video address to the participants of this year's London Book Fair.
"Let's support our books so that they support us," summed up the President's wife.