Kim and Jeppe sow and reap in a country at war: - The women are sent out on the roads to save the men from being called to the front

Sønderborg
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Jeppe Bendix Jørgensen and Kim Nielsen are farmers and work as operations managers on three large farms in western and central Ukraine. They went there as very young – driven by adventure – but landed in the middle of a war. Even if the missile alarms sound, there must be sowing and reaping. Neither of the two young farmers expects to return home to Denmark again.

Holger Jepsen [email protected]

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Jeppe Bendix Jørgensen – from Southern Jutland, who lives and works as manager of three farms and 130 employees in Ukraine. Here on the oldest and largest farm – Danam – south of Kyiv. Photo: Holger Jepsen
Kim Nielsen with his wife Oksana and children in the private residence inside the farm. We continue to eat, even if the air raid warning suddenly goes off. Photo: Holger Jepsen.
The main house on the farm Perejme – like so much else, was built in the Soviet era. It also contains administration, a canteen, meeting rooms – and showers and bathrooms are being fitted out for all employees. Photo: Holger Jepsen
Peter Hansen from Sønderborg is one of the owners behind the farms in Ukraine – here on the dairy farm Dan Milk near Zhytomir in the north west. Here they milk 400 Jersey cows. Photo: Holger Jepsen
The farm Danam is actually an old penal camp – a penal camp from the Soviet era. Photo: Holger Jepsen
You must drive that way up here on the way home. Jeppe Bendix Jørgensen (left) and Peter Hansen, one of the owners of the farms in Ukraine, look at a map of the large country. Photo: Holger Jepsen
The three farms’ managing director Alyona Baydokha holds a short meeting with the farm’s manager, Kim Nielsen (at the end of the table), and owner Peter Hansen. Photo: Holger Jepsen
Bulletproof vests are bought for employees if they have to go to war. Photo: Holger Jepsen
Jeppe Bendix in his office at Danam. – If someone asks, I usually say that the two in the photo behind me are my mother and father, he says. Photo: Holger Jepsen