Story #157. "We cannot abandon our land:" A Farm Worker's Frontline Routine

August 8, 2024
Danylo, who works for an agricultural enterprise, shares how his team completed the sowing season despite ongoing bombing and danger.
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The skies over Ukraine were not closed as many wished, leaving hectares of Ukrainian fields vulnerable to the Russian fire. Thousands of Ukrainians continue to work in the open air, and Danylo is one of them, working less than 5 kilometers from the dividing line between the Ukrainian and Russian fronts.

In the early days of the war, helicopters that had been withdrawn from the combat zone were landed in our fields. Meanwhile, we sowed peas. Everyone believed that everything would be fine.

Danylo, 23, drives on special vehicles, tractors, and sprayers for a private agrarian enterprise. He is mostly responsible for tilling the land at various stages of the harvest, applying fertilizers, and protecting plants from pests.

As the war unfolded in those early months, Danylo and his colleagues received an unusual command: set up roadblocks. So they did. 

However, it did not save them from the arrival of the Russian soldiers, which, Danylo remembers, took place on March 5, 2022.

"The Russian army staged a battle right where we were, shelling our city [withheld for safety reasons]. It was loud until it all went silent. It ended with our victory, and the enemy retreated far back. But since then, we have had no electricity, no water, and no mobile connection at all."

The aftermath of a Russian attack, captured by Danylo himself.

Detached from the other world Danylo is when in the fields, working inside either very loud or modern noise-canceling vehicles. How possibly can he react to the war alerts in conditions like these, and where should he run from the open field? These questions have no answers because the field remains the field. It is flat and unprotected. 

"If I'm working alone, I only hear explosions that happen right nearby. One time, a soldier told me, 'I don't even know who risks more, you standing in the open field or me in the trench! At least I have something!'

Thankfully, now they also have their least: Danylo and his colleagues use walkie-talkies to warn each other of danger and adjust their actions. 

Thanks to our troops, we have numerous pits and dugouts near our fields. Sometimes we drive the tractor to the nearest dugout, abandon it, and take shelter there. It is possible to replace the tractor, but not me.

Replacing equipment is what Danylo's enterprise has used to over the past ten years.

"Since 2014, our company has been gradually losing its lands and equipment to Russia. It had about 10,000 hectares of land under cultivation in Crimea alone. Although I wasn't working there at the time, we were all familiar with this story."

What the enterprise succeeded in preserving was thanks to people like Danylo, building defensive structures, sleeping in tractors, and despite all the above, even managing to start the sowing campaign according to the calendar plan!

"We fully resumed work in April-May 2022. The first thing we did was treat the wheat with plant protection products. At first, we had nothing on-site-no equipment, tools, fuel, or chemicals, not even a place to sleep. All our equipment was left in Zaporizhzhya. We spent the nights in our cars and brought everything we needed with us: fuel, chemicals, food, spare parts, and tools. We worked for two days at a time and then returned to replenish our supplies."

By May, they had already sowed 300 hectares of sunflowers.

Danylo says they had planned on sowing 1,500 hectares, but many lands came under enemy fire, and the danger was just too high. The lands they did sow produced a fine harvest, however, as Danylo and his team were able to fertilize them in time. However, this work has since become much harder.

"Due to the very bright car lights we need in the fields, we cannot work at night. They would make us a military target immediately as Russians won't mind which type of vehicle that is and simply attack.

This significantly impacts our work schedule. For example, when cultivating sunflowers or wheat, we need a temperature below 25 C. By eight in the morning, it's already 23-24 degrees and getting hot. Thus, the only way is to try to work some hours in the morning and a few in the evening, doing as much as possible during those cooler periods."

It all seems to be about the lands and the products that Ukraine is most famous for in the world: wheat and sunflowers. However, a deeper look opens up a larger picture. Love for the land, fear of losing a life, and care for each other became closely knit to keep this whole agrarian sector going, critical not only for Ukraine but to feeding the world.

The blue-yellow view Danylo regularly sees during his working hours.

"We cannot just abandon our land, right? The harvest means a year of non-stop work. So skipping even one of its stages would mean losing a whole year of many people's efforts.

Of course, there is fear. We talk amongst ourselves about how every bombing feels like the first time. However, the bombing is unpredictable---it may last for an hour, but then it's over, and the fear is over, too."

A skilled worker like Danylo, who is finishing his master's degree in agro-engineering and works with smart equipment worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, could easily find work elsewhere. However, even hypothetically discussing leaving, he cannot imagine himself anywhere else, especially after such a long and challenging journey. And this is what true dedication is.

Lisa Dzhulai
Journalist at UkraineWorld