Ukraine has restricted access to three online bookshops — Hbrstore, BookShop and "Akonit". They were selling banned publishing products from Russian publishers, and their owners concealed information about their legal status and whereabouts.
This was reported by the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine.
During monitoring, the agency found books on the sites from the Russian publishers "Eksmo", "AST" and "MIF", linked to a Russian citizen who is under Ukrainian sanctions. This refers to Russian businessman Oleg Novikov — the owner of the Eksmo-AST publishing group.
The shops also offered books published in Russia after the start of the full-scale invasion and, likely, illegally imported into Ukraine.
According to Derzhkomteleradio, the shops’ administrations ignored official warnings demanding that the banned titles be removed from sale.
Following joint work by Derzhkomteleradio, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the National Centre for оперативно-технічного management of electronic communications networks, a decision was taken to restrict access to the three websites.
Access to them can be restored only after martial law ends, provided the owners are legalised and the shops’ operations are brought into line with Ukrainian legislation.
Overall, since July 2025, at the initiative of Derzhkomteleradio and with the support of the SBU, 52 online bookshops have been blocked in Ukraine for distributing products from Russia and Belarus, published after the start of the full-scale invasion.