Ukraine's farmers face Russia's blockade and explosives on their lands this harvest

Ukrainian farmer Mykhailo Liubchenko, 72, says he'll likely burn the field he stands in front of because unexploded ordnance makes harvesting the grain possibly fatal. (Peter Granitz/NPR)

MYKOLAIV OBLAST, Ukraine — It only took Mykhailo Liubchenko homemade vodka to salvage some of his business.

Liubchenko, 72, farms wheat and sunflowers on the front lines of the Ukraine war's southern campaign. He says he paid off Russian soldiers with samogon — moonshine — so they wouldn't torch his fields or steal his equipment in the early weeks of the war in February.