Verkhovna Rada lawmaker and member of the Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy Volodymyr Viatrovych (European Solidarity faction) believes the bookstore rent compensation program should apply to all bookstores, regardless of the size of the settlement or their income level.
"Instead of providing effective support to the book industry, which is being destroyed by Russian aggressors, the government is demonstrating its inability and unwillingness to comply even with the current provisions of the law on state support for book publishing in Ukraine. The latest example is the resolution on subsidies for bookstores adopted today, which government officials are gladly reporting on," the lawmaker wrote on Facebook.
According to him, the law on state support for book publishing in Ukraine, adopted in June 2022, guarantees that the state will reimburse all bookstores legally operating on the market and not selling Russian or Russian-language books for the cost of renting their premises, in an amount equal to 20% of revenue from books sold on the premises.
"The mechanism does not provide for any manual management or state intervention in the book market, the formula for granting the subsidy is clear, transparent and should operate automatically. With relatively small expenditures on the program, estimated at less than UAH 300 million per year nationwide, against a UAH 4 trillion budget, its implementation would not only preserve a network of hundreds of operating bookstores, but also allow new ones to open. Most importantly, it would make private investment in book distribution attractive even during the war," he added.
He also recalled that the government decision provides that the subsidy will be available only to bookstores operating in cities with populations of less than 100,000.
"Another provision sets an income limit of about UAH 10 million a year, which is simply absurd. The law says that the more revenue a bookstore receives from book sales, the greater the subsidy it will receive, thus encouraging book sales, while the resolution does exactly the opposite, encouraging businesses to conceal income to retain the subsidy," Viatrovych said.
According to his estimates, the government has thereby deprived about 90% of Ukrainian bookstores of the right to the subsidy.
"I am convinced that neither Ukrainian book distributors, nor the public, nor members of parliament will accept this arbitrariness. Illegal government decisions must be revised. Article 8-2 of the Law of Ukraine on State Support for Book Publishing in Ukraine must finally take full effect, at least from January 1 next year," the lawmaker wrote.
As reported, in June 2022 the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law on amendments to certain laws to stimulate the development of Ukrainian book publishing and book distribution, which, among other things, introduced a bookstore subsidy for rent, but the program was not launched.
In October 2025, Mykyta Poturaiev, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy (Servant of the People faction), called on the Finance Ministry to provide funding in 2026 for rent compensation for bookstores.
In December 2025, Yevheniia Kravchuk, deputy chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy (Servant of the People faction), said the bookstore rent subsidy program had been blocked by the Finance Ministry.
On Sept 28, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a decision launching a rent compensation program for bookstores in communities with populations of up to 100,000. The first payments are scheduled for the first quarter of 2027 for rent paid in the fourth quarter of 2026.
