It’s sowing season in Ukraine, one of the world’s breadbaskets. But this year, as much as fuel and fertilizer, local farmers need bullet-proof vests and deminers to destroy the bombs that fell on their fields.
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In those of Igor Tsiapa, in the south-west of the country, an unexploded missile lies on a piece of black earth, left intact while the rest of his cornfield has already been plowed and planted.
“We spotted the projectile for the first time ten days ago, but we did not touch this part of the field, we continued to prepare the seedlings”, explains the soon-to-be 60-year-old farmer, a few meters away. deminers in action.
“Everything must be done on time if we want to have a more or less correct harvest (…) We had to continue working”, continues Igor Tsiapa, whose farm is located around Grygorivka, a village in the Zaporizhia region.
Since the start of the war, Ukrainian farmers have found themselves at the forefront of the Russian invasion, which left large quantities of mines, shells and unexploded missiles across the country.
There is a great risk of triggering one of these devices. According to the police, the latest accident occurred in the Kyiv region on Wednesday. A farmer driving his tractor hit a mine, seriously injuring his arms and leg.
Maria Kolesnyk, of the analysis company ProAgro Group, estimates that about twenty similar incidents have been recorded since the start of the war, without it being known how many have been fatal.
“In the agricultural community today, the most sought-after profession is that of sapper,” the analyst adds to AFP: “We desperately need the help of the international community, because Ukrainian professionals work 24 hours a day. 24 and 7 days a week.”
Race against time
In Igor Tsiapa’s field, the team of deminers, blue helmets with the Ukrainian Ministry of Emergency Situations on their heads, placed small explosive bricks the size of a fist along the missile, before shoveling a mound of earth above.
“Every day since the beginning of the war, unexploded ordnance has been found and destroyed,” says team member Dmytro Polichchouk.
“When the farmers began to work in the fields, we began to receive regular calls informing us of the presence of new machines”, he adds, specifying that during this sowing period, his team destroys up to three a day.
And farmers don’t always have the patience to wait for deminers to arrive. They are regularly absent when Dmytro Polichchouk and his colleagues arrive, having only marked the presence of the bombs with a stick adorned with a plastic bottle or bag.
A dangerous practice: there is no guarantee that a missile dropped intact will not explode, because some are equipped with a self-destruct device, warns Polichchouk.
But farmers in Ukrainian regions not occupied by Russia do not have time to wait. In this key region for the supply of cereals to the planet, farmers who can have a duty to take over from those blocked by the occupation, believes Igor Tsiapa.
“We have a double responsibility and a double pressure for a good harvest. There is no active combat here, so we can work,” he said.
Ukraine is the world’s largest producer of sunflower oil, and is also among the world’s top five exporters of corn and wheat. And the disruptions caused by war, the forced displacement of farmers and fuel shortages are causing concern in many countries dependent on its exports.
In Igor Tsiapa’s field, the work of the deminers ends abruptly with the controlled explosion of the missile, which releases a plume of black smoke and echoes in the valley.
Once calm returns, the farmer jumps into his red van and drives off. He returns to work.