The First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska visited the 12th International Book Arsenal Festival in Kyiv. “Life on the Edge” is the focus theme and main metaphor of this Book Arsenal.
Together with Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, Director General of the Mystetskyi Arsenal, and Yuliia Kozlovets, Coordinator of the International Book Arsenal Festival, First Lady Olena Zelenska visited the stands of Ukrainian publishing houses, including the exhibition of burned books entitled “Books Destroyed by Russia”.
“It is important to talk not only about literature but also about how Russia is destroying Ukrainian culture and the people who create it. After all, this is not the first time that Russia has burned our books along with libraries, bookstores, and museums. These books were supposed to smell of ink, but they smell of grief,” Olena Zelenska noted.
The First Lady purchased several remaining books by Vivat publishing house, including “Izmaragd of Princess Nesvitska” by Oleksandr Irvanets and “Happiness Hunters” by Valeriy Puzik. She mentioned that she had also bought the following books for her home library: “Poems and Songs” by the poet Hlib Babich, who was killed in the war, “Forpost Okhtyrka” by Yevheniia Podobna, “The Train Arrives on Schedule. Stories of People and Railways” by Marichka Paplauskaite (the author of the foreword is the British actor, writer, director and Ukrzaliznytsia passenger Stephen Fry), ‘Home for Dom’ by Victoria Amelina, a writer who died in a Russian shelling a few days after the 2023 Book Arsenal.
“No one leaves the Arsenal without a stack of new books. In the time of Ukrainian resistance to aggression, it is no longer just about reading, but also about solidarity and preserving our voice,” the first lady said.