The building housing the office of the local newspaper Visti was damaged in a Russian air strike on Sloviansk (Donetsk oblast) on 26 August: windows, window frames, and grilles were blasted out and the entrance to the newsroom was destroyed, Karachun reports.
The state of the property inside the office (desktop computers, printers, scanners, furniture, etc.) is unclear as there is, for now, no way to check.
This marks the second major strike on Visti‘s office over the course of the Russo–Ukrainian war. The building was first damaged during the fighting in Sloviansk in the spring and summer of 2014. Back then, a shelling strike burst the building’s windows.
“A few days after Sloviansk was de-occupied [in July 2014 — Ed.], I walked into my office and didn’t recognise it. Shattered glass everywhere, remnants of window frames. The wind was blowing sheets of paper and newspaper issues around the office. There was a thick layer of dust on the desks… But within two weeks, we had resumed printing the newspaper,” said Visti chief editor Oleksandr Kulbaka.
According to him, the newsroom had continued operating and was a profitable enterprise up until the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The relocated team now works remotely from various regions across Ukraine, including Odesa, Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.
The printing is done in Vinnytsia and delivered to Sloviansk via Nova Post. There, it is distributed to locals free of charge with the help of local authorities and volunteers.
On 10 September, Sloviansk’s Visti will mark its 109th anniversary. It is the oldest newspaper in Donetsk oblast.
As IMI has reported, the historic Printer House building on Universytetska Street in Sloviansk was destroyed in a Russian air strike on 26 August.