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<img src="/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/83304eb3be9118fd76b2ed41b3aaf23e.jpg" title="On Zaporizhzhia, farmers are reducing sown areas due to FPV drone attacks and field mining" alt="On Zaporizhzhia, farmers are reducing sown areas due to FPV drone attacks and field mining” />
Photo: Screenshot from video mykola_farmer
In the Zaporizhzhia region, farmers continue to lose access to land due to intensified Russian shelling and drone attacks. If before the full-scale invasion about 1.88 million hectares of arable land were cultivated in the region, last year only about 380 thousand hectares remained under crops. This year, the area may decrease by another 20 thousand hectares, to about 360 thousand hectares.
This is reported by «Aktsent» citing the words of Valentyna Kramarenko, director of the Department of Agrarian Industrial Development of the Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration.
It is precisely because of the threat of FPV drones that farmers are forced to abandon plots in the Orikhiv district, Bilenke, Komyshuvakha, Ternuvatka, and other communities. The fields have turned into a combat zone.
Mykola Hrabko, head of the farming enterprise «Mykola Pole» from Komyshuvakha, spoke about the difficulties faced by farmers in front-line communities. According to him, the farm can no longer work on approximately 230 hectares, where winter wheat and rapeseed were still grown in 2025.
Another approximately 250–270 hectares were sown with sunflowers, but due to increased attacks, access to these fields has also been lost.
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Drones pose a threat not only to people but also to agricultural machinery. According to the farmer, FPV drones attack cars, trucks, combines, and other equipment. A separate problem is fires in the fields: downed or suppressed by electronic warfare means, drones fall on dry vegetation, causing crops to ignite.
Due to the danger, the farm has completely abandoned night work. At the same time, mobile communication in the area is largely absent due to damaged infrastructure. To maintain communication and monitor the safety of employees, the farmer purchased drone detectors, Starlink, and walkie-talkies at his own expense.
Another problem is explosive objects in the fields. During land preparation for sowing, farmers find unexploded FPV drones, “Molniya” missiles, missile fragments, and other ammunition. Some dangerous items have to be documented and reported to rescuers, and after explosions, farmers independently remove debris from the fields.
Thus, conducting ordinary field work in the front-line zone turns into a constant combination of agricultural production and security measures. The choice of time for work, the movement of equipment, and access to specific fields are determined not so much by the technological needs of the crop as by the situation at the front.
Problems also arise after harvesting. Due to the danger, truck drivers refuse to travel to front-line territories, which complicates the export of grain. One of Mykola Hrabko’s farm’s harvests had to be stored at a relative’s warehouse. As a result of a UAV strike, the warehouse caught fire, and the farmer, who was about 15 meters from the explosion site, received a concussion.
In addition to security and logistical problems, farmers face financial difficulties. The war limits the ability of farms to generate income from product sales and invest in production, while credit obligations remain. Because of this, local farmers have limited access even to state support.
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Against this backdrop, the reduction in sown areas in the Zaporizhzhia region is a consequence not only of direct crop destruction or equipment damage. Part of the land is effectively becoming inaccessible for cultivation due to the threat of FPV drones, mining, lack of safe access, and the inability to ensure normal logistics.
The situation in the Zaporizhzhia region shows that for front-line farms today, it is not just about crop losses. The war is gradually reducing the area of land that can be safely cultivated, complicating field work, storage, and transportation of products, and increasing the financial burden on farms.
Mr. Mykola says he will not call his business over, because he is still alive. But whether people will want to return to farming on burned and mined lands after the war is a question to which he currently has no answer.
Alla Husarova, SuperAgronom.com
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