It has been more than two years since the escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict. After getting over the initial shock of the new war reality, Ukrainian civilians are learning to live amid hostilities.

After losing their homes, their habitual daily routines, all their means of livelihood to support themselves and their families, people are disoriented and require support from those who can provide it.

One of the most important tasks of the ICRC is to provide the affected population with necessary supplies to cover their basic needs such as food, hygiene parcels, building materials to rehabilitate damaged homes.

However, the organisation also seeks to help people to regain financial independence so that they can earn a living rather than rely on humanitarian support, which, in turn, will give fresh impetus for the development of small businesses.

Starting from 2023, the ICRC has been running an agricultural support program in frontline areas of Ukraine. People are given everything they need to plant, grow or increase crop yields including seeds, fertilisers, agricultural tools, irrigation systems and greenhouses.

Pavlo Karahezian moved to Ukraine’s Kherson region almost 40 years ago and has long come to call this country his home. All these years, the man has been working the soil, living off it, and, as he says, has put down roots here a long time ago.

“How can one leave such a beautiful country? People have left, abandoned our beautiful Ukraine, why?” he laments.

He owns around a hectare of land, most of which is occupied by a lush vineyard. Several varieties of grape grow here in straight, neat beds. There are also lots of vegetables, melons and watermelons. Over all these years, despite his venerable age, he has been working here daily from 5am until 9pm.

“I am turning 85 this September, but I am still going to keep on working until the very last day. Until the day I die. My neighbour told me, “Pavlo, at your age, why did you plant these grapes again? Are you even going to use it?” – “Not just use it, I’m going to live to 126 years!” says Mr Karahezian.

As part of an agricultural support program of the ICRC mission in Ukraine, the man received a greenhouse, seeds, an irrigation system and money to have it installed. Besides growing the usual vegetables to provide food or for sale, he also wants to use the greenhouse to grow flowers to give them away.

“I will use half of it to grow tomatoes and cucumbers for myself, and the other half to grow roses. And we will be giving them away to people, giving several to good ones. So that they remember they were given by Pavlo free of charge,” says the pensioner.

The man explains that he planted vegetables initially as a test to see how to adapt the greenhouse to the local climate to create the best conditions for the vegetables, and to grow them all the year round.

“I have now planted cucumbers and will see how to go about it. Made an additional window as a test. Will see if it needs to be covered with tarpaulin – after all, it’s not every year that we have a 40-degree heat. I planted coriander and dill along the edges. As you can see, I have also brought some pipes. I’ve got firewood for heating. I’m going to install a stove here and pipes to the top. So, I will be able to supply heat when I need it and turn it off when I don’t,” says the man.

Tetiana, a displaced person, also calls the first vegetables she planted in a greenhouse an experiment. Due to relentless shelling, she moved to a safer village together with her children. For her, a set of agricultural tools and a greenhouse system mean an opportunity to provide her family with food and sell the surplus.

“As displaced persons, we live off humanitarian assistance and our garden. We grow our own potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions. We have now planted three varieties of cucumbers here. It’s an experiment because in my previous job we planted crops in somewhat different conditions, but I believe something should come out of it. And here I’ve planted tomatoes using the seeds I bought thanks to your assistance,” says the woman showing her crops.

For the future, Tetiana views this activity as a business and the main source of income. But besides that, she finds working the soil satisfying and invariably uplifting.

“You forget about all the troubles happening in the world today. I do it mainly as a hobby, for my own pleasure. It has been a pleasure so far, but, of course, I also want a harvest. What pleasure can there be without the fruits of one’s labour? The most important thing is to put one’s heart and soul into it, anything is doable even with drones flying overhead – we must have got used to it. It’s not good to be used to that, but life makes us stronger,” says the woman.

In the Kherson region, around 650 households in areas along the frontline that were affected by the hostilities have received agricultural kits and were able to resume and expand the production of food. The kits included a water tank, an irrigation system, agrotextile, fertilisers and seeds. In addition to that, almost 200 households received greenhouses.

“Greenhouse systems were given to people who have experience in using greenhouses, whose greenhouses had been destroyed by hostilities. Those were the main eligibility criteria for this programme. In 2024, we selected the Chornobaivka community for this project, which did not include Chornobaivka village due to its proximity to the frontline,” says Vadym Grebniev, an economic security field officer at the Odesa subdelegation of the ICRC mission in Ukraine.

We applied several criteria to select an area for such assistance. Firstly, relative security – the villages had to be located beyond the range of artillery. Secondly, despite of the evacuation policy, local residents continue to engage in agricultural activities or have returned to their homes and are rehabilitating them.

“Before the conflict, the Kherson region, especially some suburbs like the Chornobaivka community, was the most important region in Ukraine in terms of fruit and vegetable crops. That was why we selected an area with the highest concentration of greenhouses where people know how to do it and how to make the best use of this assistance,” the ICRC representative explains.

Local authorities have described the ICRC’s agricultural support program as one of the most relevant kinds of assistance. They said that this project helps people to resume their usual activities, so they do not need much time to learn and adapt – people can begin working and earning a living right away.

“The first thing people did after they came back was work the soil and plant seeds. Your program nudged people towards self-employment, towards doing something, growing vegetables they can sell and earn some money rather than relying on humanitarian assistance to survive,” says Yuliia Rostok, acting community leader of Klapaia village, Kherson region.

After completing this year’s agricultural support program, the ICRC Economic Security Unit has already begun working on a similar program for the coming year. The communities that will receive agricultural kits have already been identified and there will be more of them next year.