Russians deliberately destroying Ukraine's harvest: farmers outline Russian tactics – photo
Russian forces are deliberately destroying crops in Kherson Oblast, using drones to drop incendiary munitions from all sides of a field to maximise the destruction of grain.
Source: Viktor Hordiienko, Head of the Kherson Oblast Farmers' Association, on Facebook
Quote: "They fly in from all sides and drop incendiary munitions, deliberately causing the fields to catch fire. That is exactly what they have done to my fields. They dropped incendiary charges from different directions so the fire would spread across as large an area as possible."
Details: Russian forces are terrorising the Beryslav district and Tiahynka hromada, farmers say. [A hromada is an administrative unit designating a village, several villages, or a town, and their adjacent territories – ed.]
Due to the constant threat of repeat strikes as well as landmines and other unexploded ordnance, State Emergency Service firefighters cannot quickly reach the fires; the flames spread within minutes, destroying a year's work.
Risking their own lives, using bare hands and improvised means, farmers attempt to fight the blaze while Russian FPV drones circle overhead. The Russians strike people and equipment with drones to prevent the fires from being extinguished.
"Last night they nearly killed my tractor driver too. After everything he went through, the man's nerves simply gave out. Right now he is leaving the village, because he can no longer live and work under the constant threat of death," Hordiienko said.
Hordiienko's own farm lost around 1,700 hectares of wheat fields. Across Kherson Oblast, around 2,000 hectares of crops have already burned, according to early estimates.
The Russians are deliberately burning fields and forest belts to deny Ukrainian forces cover and deprive farmers of their income.
"They have got only one goal – to burn everything down. To destroy the bread, destroy the harvest, turn fertile Ukrainian land into scorched earth. This is deliberate terror against Ukrainian farmers, our people and our land," Hordiienko wrote.
Viktor Hordiienko is the son of Kherson Oblast farmer Oleksandr Hordiienko, who was posthumously awarded the title Hero of Ukraine. Oleksandr Hordiienko was known for personally defending his fields and equipment from drones with a shotgun. On the morning of 5 September 2025, Hordiienko was killed in a Russian attack when a drone hit the car he was working in on his field.
Last year, the "farmer with a shotgun" was included in UP's annual list of Ukraine's leaders – UP 100.
While wheat, rapeseed, sunflower, peas and barley remain the priority crops in Kherson Oblast, an increasing number of farmers are switching to growing vegetables, which are less vulnerable to fires.
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