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WESTERN PRODUCER — The farmers of Ukraine have learned some harsh lessons during this long war.

They park their machinery in separate locations to minimize losses should there be a rocket attack. They closely guard the details of their operations, such as location of grain storage, even from friendly visitors.

“Just please don’t take pictures. And don’t write the name of our farm. Two days ago, a rocket flew into a nearby town, exactly into a granary,” farmer Mykola tells me.

The details are purposely vague, but here’s a bit about Mykola. He manages a large agricultural firm in the north of Ukraine. It farms 100,000 acres of land. Every year it produces grain in excess of 300,000 tonnes and earn tens of millions of dollars.

Even with this success and economic clout, Mykola’s firm and other farmers are powerless in time of war. They cannot stop rockets.

I first came to Mykola to talk about the difficult weather conditions this year. Almost the entire territory of Ukraine has experienced a . Something similar happened in 2020, when many farmers lost crops and harvested less than a third of their expected corn yields.

However, by some miracle, Ukrainian farmers have . It is noticeably smaller than last year, but there is grain. The picture ahead isn’t as bright, though. There is no moisture in the soil several feet down, and farmers cannot plant winter wheat and canola. If the situation does not change, the next year will be very bad.

But Mykola is not only worried about the weather. One way or another, the company can afford to buy the best seed, liquid fertilizers and pesticides, even to work for one or two years at a loss. It’s the war that troubles him most.

“Much worse are Russian missiles and drones,” he says. “Our fields are 100 miles from the border. But we need to be very careful. The Russians are trying to destroy granaries, warehouses with mineral fertilizers and hangars with equipment. Every day you need to think about how to prevent human casualties and financial losses.”

A regional manager of pesticides for a well-known global company stands with us. This young man has undergone several complex surgeries and his leg does not bend well. He received this injury in the war and has now returned to his civilian profession.

“It is still relatively calm here,” the man says. “I have farmer clients who are closer to the border and every trip to them is something scary. Recently, I was driving down the road and a Russian drone hit a nearby car and it exploded.

“I stopped to help. Stunned but alive, people came out and said that everything was fine. And then I saw that the second drone was already flying into my car. I had to run away very quickly.”

As soon as you get closer to the northern, eastern or southeastern border of Ukraine, you will hear many such stories. Residents there live in constant anxiety because the Russians shell towns and villages indiscriminately.

For example, in the large northern city of Sumy, a rocket recently hit a hospital and more than 10 people died. My colleague lives in Sumy and we communicate every day. When I ask him how he is doing, I’m really asking if he managed to get at least two hours of sleep at night. Rockets, large bombs and kamikaze drones fall on the city every night.

I remember that at school we had lessons on civil defence against bombings. Then we wondered why we needed it. Who will attack us, because we are a peaceful country? We also didn’t understand why we needed bomb shelters in every city. Today, my children spend half of their school time in bomb shelters.

At least twice a day, and sometimes four or five times, alarm sirens begin to wail in the city, just like in old black-and-white films about the Second World War. Then an instant movement begins in each school. Several hundred children, together with their teachers, quickly run to the bomb shelter and sit there until the alarm signal sounds.

Sometimes it takes 10 minutes, but often it takes two hours or more. Children sit in the basement, talk to each other, play, or teachers conduct impromptu lessons. If the anxiety did not end until the evening and one of the parents did not come to pick up the children, they can sit in the basement all day.

Adults who work in the fields, on livestock farms and in granaries, most often do not pay attention to alarm signals. This is not madness or special courage. You just can’t do your job otherwise.

You can’t abandon a planter and tractor when every hour of sowing is expensive in wet ground. You won’t leave a sprayer with a full tank in the field, and even more so, you won’t stop a dryer loaded with corn. Therefore, you simply have to take risks, especially in regions that are close to the front line.

A week ago, I had a video call with farmers working in the southern part of Ukraine. Their farms are also very close to the front lines. Do you know what worries them most?

One brushed off my question about everyday danger. What worries him is that he … doesn’t have the money to build a sunflower oil factory and put a modern irrigation system in his fields. This is a man whose farm is just a few miles away from the enemy, which destroys everything it can reach.

Yes, we are adapting to life under war conditions. It is the third year since the start of a full-scale war and the 10th year since the start of hostilities with Russia. You just have to learn to survive, no matter who you are: a teacher, a farmer or a theatre actor. Those who can will wear military uniforms, while others try to do their jobs well.

I have not met a single farmer who would sell his farm and his agricultural machinery to hide abroad. Only shareholders of large agricultural companies, who rarely visited Ukraine before, can do so. All people who work on the land stay on it until the last or take up weapons and protect them from enemies.

Our fall was very dry, without rain for many weeks, and even through mid-autumn, mild heat remained. But even in this false summer, winter is just around the corner. That will mean a new wave of massive missile attacks on power plants and electric transformers, and therefore long blackouts and lack of gas heating.

We once again prepared for a severe military winter, collecting the last crop of carrots, beans and apples, cutting firewood and looking for inexpensive batteries and flashlights.

And each of us is making new plans for the following spring and summer. I want to plant a garden, put in a greenhouse. Another thing is to build a beautiful path from the gate to the house.

But when I’m driving and thinking about it, I soon remember: “You’re being mobilized next September. What can you dream about here, except for high-quality military ammunition?”

Nevertheless, we all dream and we plan our daily affairs as if there is no war. We believe that everything will end well, but we are afraid to even imagine the terrible price that Ukraine has already paid for its freedom. There are many thousands of lost lives and millions of mutilated destinies.

And yes, we need weapons, many modern weapons that will save the lives of children and adults and help stop evil. If we don’t stop it, then maybe no one will.

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