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ABC News
ABC News
National
Europe correspondent Nick Dole and Lincoln Rothall in Dnipro

In Ukraine's wheat fields, farmers have formed a quiet resistance against Vladimir Putin's occupation

Oleksander Sherbina says he would relish the chance to steal a Russian tank with his tractor. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)

The horrific images of the war in Ukraine leave little room for amusement.

However, when farmer Oleksander Sherbina speaks about the theft of Russian tanks, his face lights up.

"This is typical of a Ukrainian farmer," he says. 

As Vladimir Putin's army invaded, photos and videos of broken-down Russian tanks being stolen by farmers on tractors delighted many Ukrainians.

Mr Sherbina, a grain and livestock farmer from central Ukraine, said he would relish the chance to do the same.

"We didn't come to them, they came to us," he says.

It is not surprising Ukraine's farmers want to help the war effort. The country's agriculture sector is being directly targeted by the Russian military.

One Ukrainian farmer used his tractor to take a Russian tank. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)

Farmland is being mined, grain silos are being destroyed and ports are being blockaded by Russian forces in an attempt to crush the country's massive grain export industry.

"They want to demolish our nation," Mr Sherbina says.

"They are doing everything they can to destroy our cities and our infrastructure, destroy our bridges and take out our grain."

The war risks not only robbing Ukraine of much-needed funds, but starving the world of food when it is already in short supply.

Farmers in the firing line

Farming in Ukraine is now a dangerous business.

Last week, a missile hit a grain storage facility not far from Mr Sherbina's farm in the Dnipro region.

The Russian rocket hit a grain storage facility in the Dnipro region of Ukraine. 

Producers have also reported finding landmines in the soil near Kyiv following Russia's withdrawal.

The UN predicts up to 30 per cent of Ukraine's winter crops will go unharvested due to the conflict.

Another Dnipro farmer, Vitaliy Kistrycya, says his life has changed since the war began.

"Everything we're doing now is related to the war," he tells the ABC.

"We go to bed and we don't know if we'll wake up tomorrow."

Mr Kistrycya, who farms a number of crops, including wheat, barley and corn, says Ukrainian and Russian farmers once shared a certain bond.

"We considered them friends, as close neighbours," he says.

"But now, when women and children as well as young soldiers are dying, none of them speak up.

"We did not expect such hatred."

Ukraine's wheatfields have become war zones, pockmarked with Russian shells. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)

While getting hold of enough fuel, fertiliser and seeds has been a challenge for many farmers, the most devastating impact of the war has been on exports.

Russia's navy is blockading the Black Sea, preventing grain from leaving Ukrainian ports like Odesa and Mykolaiv.

While Ukraine is still able to export some grain via Romanian and Bulgarian ports, Russia is attempting to shut those routes down too, by launching strikes on a crucial railway bridge near Odesa.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned his country risks losing "millions of tonnes" of grain unless the blockade is lifted.

However, it is not just Ukraine that will miss out.

Ukraine is the breadbasket of the world

Ukraine is the world's fifth-biggest exporter of wheat and is in the top three for sunflower seeds, corn and barley.

Ukraine provides around half the wheat bought by the World Food Programme. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)

The World Food Programme (WFP) usually buys almost half its wheat from Ukraine.

Even before the war, the WFP had to cut rations by 50 per cent for 8 million people due to the impacts of rising fuel prices and COVID-19.

Now, it is facing an even bigger budget shortfall due to the blockade, which is pushing up prices.

WFP executive director David Beasley has pleaded for Russia to allow grain to be transported from Ukrainian ports.

"The lives of millions, if not billions of people, are at stake," he wrote on Twitter last week.

Anatoliy Hasenko, an agronomist on a grain farm outside Dnipro, said it was a shame Ukrainian farmland was not being used to its full potential due to the war.

Anatoliy Hasenko says Ukraine is very important for the world's food supply. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)

"This part of Ukraine has rich black earth, it's very fertile," he says. 

When the ABC asked about the worldwide food shortages the war could create, he begins to weep.

"Now they understand how important Ukraine is for food," he says.

Oleksander Sherbina said Russia's blockades and attacks on infrastructure were an attempt to pressure the international community.

"This is planned hunger," he says. 

Farmers fighting back

Vitaliy Kistrycya may not have stolen a tank with his tractor, but he has been helping to dig trenches for the troops.

And while he cannot export his wheat, he is not letting it go to waste.

With Russia cutting off ports in the Black Sea, Ukraine's grain supplies are building up. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)

Mr Kistrycya is one of many producers donating their wheat to make flour in order to feed frontline troops, as well as Ukrainians who have been forced to flee places like Kharkiv and Donetsk.

The flour is milled locally and then handed over to a team of bakers who work all morning in a tiny old bakery in the Dnipro region.

Prior to the war, the bakery had not been used for 35 years, but now its wood-fired oven turns out more than 250 loaves a day, as well as pirozhki, a cabbage-filled pastry.

The farming community is supporting the war effort by preparing fresh food for the Ukrainian military. (ABC News: Lincoln Rothall)

Anton, who leads the team of bakers, said reviving the disused bakery was a major challenge.

"When we first came up with the idea, nobody thought we could do it," he says. 

"But if people like us don't help, who will? We all want to help the armed forces liberate our land."

Other farmers, like Oleksander Sherbina, are donating livestock.

While the ABC was visiting his farm, a truckload of pigs arrived.

They would soon become food for those on the front line in the form of a stew, packed in jars with a generous layer of fat on top.

"This is a struggle for all Ukrainian people against the invasion," he says. 

"And farmers can play a special role."

Ukrainian farmers are fighting back and taking over Russian tanks
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