Ukraine's farmers facing ruin as Russians leave animals slaughtered and fields mined

The country's Black Sea ports have been blockaded and mined by Russians, as farmers desperately try to get the harvest back on track

Russian forces attacked the AE Naporivske farm and slaughtered many of its cows
Russian forces attacked the AE Naporivske farm and slaughtered many of its cows Credit: Paul Grover/Paul Grover

When Hryhorii Tkachenko heard that his village was about to be overrun by Russians, he knew he had to urgently evacuate.

In a blur of panic he gathered his family. Then he said a quick goodbye to his beloved herd of cows on his farm and prayed to God they would be left alone by Moscow’s invading army.

But when he returned to Lukashivka, 15 kilometres from Chernihiv, at the end of March, the scene that greeted him was like something out of a nightmare.

“The Russians butchered nearly half of my cows and made them into kebab meat which they barbequed at the village church,” Mr Tkachenko told The Telegraph. 

The ones they couldn't eat were shot in the head in nothing more than an act of wanton cruelty.

“They went on safari,” he added with disgust.

The calves were left to starve to death because their mothers had been killed. All the corpses were left to rot on his fields.

Russian forces killed most of the farm's cows
Russian forces killed most of the farm's cows Credit: Paul Grover/Paul Grover

“I always knew Russians were not good but I couldn't imagine how bad they are,” he said. “They are not human.”

He has since buried them all. Only a handful of the more than 300 cows and calves at Naporivske Agricultural Enterprises now remain. But even these are so traumatised by the violence that they are no longer producing milk. They are “almost useless”, said the in-house vet.

But that was not all that the Russians had done.

The fields he should be sowing right now with vital crops of wheat, corn and sunflower lie untouched because they are covered in mines.

Elsewhere, a warehouse piled with costly sacks of fertiliser has been wrecked after it was struck by a rocket.

Mr Tkachenko estimates his 100-hectare farm has lost hundreds of thousands of pounds as a result of the fighting and the subsequent occupation. The scale of the damage means he will effectively have to start his business again from scratch.

Hryhorii Tkachenko, head of the farm, in the barn where all of its fertilizer and some of the stored crops were destroyed
Hryhorii Tkachenko, head of the farm, in the barn where all of its fertilizer and some of the stored crops were destroyed Credit: Paul Grover/Paul Grover

But as the biggest employer in his area, he knows he must find a way.

“After the first three days when I returned I couldn't even imagine what to do,” he said.

“But I realise we have a lot of people who rely on working here and I have to make the process go on.”

Mr Tkachenko’s story is just one of many that show how the farming industry has been devastated by the war.

For Anton Vasylenko, a farmer in Mysailivka, around 100 kilometres from Kyiv, April should have been when he was preparing for one of the busiest periods of the farming calendar.

Normally, he would be focused on sowing new crops. Instead, he is preoccupied with how last season’s winter wheat is going to waste because it cannot be exported at the moment, despite growing fears of a world food shortage due to the conflict.

Ukraine is normally among the top five exporters of wheat and barley and is known as Europe’s breadbasket. The war means it is expected to export 4 million tonnes less wheat in 2022 than it usually would.

One company, Tas Agro, said it has 20 million tonnes of its corn and wheat sitting in warehouses.

“There are countries in North Africa that depend on our wheat, so this could result in famine,” Mr Vasylenko, director of agricultural production, told The Telegraph at one of their wheat farms in Mysailivka.

He added that what they do manage to export will “100 per cent not be enough for these countries”.

While land borders to Poland and central Europe are still open, the issue is in southern Ukraine. All of the country’s ports in the Black Sea, which are the main way of exporting goods, have been blockaded and mined by the Russians.

In order to make ends meet, farming industries across the country are transporting what they can on the railways via Poland and Romania, however this is resulting in only about 1 million tonnes a month being exported.

“When seaports were functioning we exported between 5 and 6 million tonnes a month,” said CEO Nyl Nemirovchenko.

“This year we do not have the opportunity to sell all our harvest, so we will be trying to sell this harvest for the next three years.”

Many fields in Ukraine have been left mined by the Russians
Many fields in Ukraine have been left mined by the Russians Credit: Paul Grover/Paul Grover

Mr Nemirovchenko added that he had been monitoring his own 80,000 hectares of fields, as well as other companies operating in the southern regions which sow winter wheat. “They are now suffering from occupation by Russia,” he said.

Last month, President Volodymyr Zelensky called on his country’s farmers to sow as many crops as possible this year.

He said: “This spring, as much as any spring, we must make a full-fledged sowing campaign. As much as possible, because it's about life. About our life. About our future.”

However, because the Russians have mined so much of Ukraine’s land, it is not safe for farmers to plough the fields or operate any machinery until they have been completely cleared, which could take weeks, if not months.

The Russian army has also been targeting farming personnel.

Last week, Tas Agro suffered a personal loss when seven of its staff were killed in Kherson and another employee was killed in Chernihiv.

The workers were all security guards and had been protecting the warehouses that contained fertiliser, machinery and seeds.

A general shortage of these goods, including fuel, has had a significant impact on the farming economy.

Taras Vysotskiy, the deputy agriculture minister, has warned previously that a fuel shortage could be the main problem for farmers.

Meanwhile, Mykola Gorbachev, chairman of the Ukrainian Grain Association, recently warned Ukraine was “sitting on a potential loss of $6 billion” due to the invasion.

While the situation looks gloomy for the farming industry on the whole, Mr Nemirovchenko tentatively suggested that throughout different regions there are farms where “the situation is normal and they had rain and the ground is fertile”.

However, despite this, the war is far from over and the impact will be felt by the farming sector for years to come.

“Of course we are worried, everyone is worried,” Mr Nemirovchenko cautioned. “Russia has been hitting us on our logistic nose to our railways and that is why our exports have diminished. We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, everyday gets worse and worse.” 
 

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