The Volyn newspaper “Kolos” temporarily closed down for 2023. The newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Leon Kondratyuk, announced this in the last issue (December 22, 2022).
“This difficult decision was made not at once, but over the course of several months of painful consideration and struggle for survival. After all, it is no secret that we are on the verge of bankruptcy. The reasons are many, but the main thing is that we don’t have enough money to pay for the printing of each single issue of the newspaper,” he wrote.
According to Leon Kondratyuk, the newspaper needs financial support: “I’ll be honest, we didn’t want village councils to allocate funds to us. We asked them to print advertisements and other content on the pages of our newspaper and to pay us for it accordingly. The benefit in this is obvious: people would have information, and we would have at least a little funding.”
The editor of the newspaper also stressed that the people of Volyn need the newspaper, but the authorities do not, because no step has been taken to support the publication.
“On the one hand, it is understandable: there is a war going on, and our defenders need the money. On the other hand, the community budget would have be suffered if they had allocated 30–40 thousand for our support, which they could,” wrote Leon Kondratyuk.
“Kolos” is an Ivanychi district newspaper. According to YouControl, the newspaper was first registered on 02.16.1994, and as of January 12, 2023, it is not in the process of closing down permanently.
An IMI representative took a photo the last issue of “Kolos” in the Olena Pchilka Science Library, Volyn Oblast.