Kherson Farmers’ Third Watermelon Harvest Since Liberation Underneath Russia’s Drone Terror

Farmers in Ukraine’s Kherson region have harvested the third batch of watermelons since parts of the region were liberated from Russian occupation. The first 500 tons were collected this season despite continued Russian shelling and drone attacks, the Kherson Regional Administration reported in a Telegram post on June 13.

“Our farmers continue to fight for every sprout of wheat under the scorching sun, Russian artillery fire, and drone attacks,” Dmytro Butriy the first deputy head of the Kherson Regional Administration said. “They have shown the whole world the resilience and loyalty to their native land”.

In 2025, local farmers have already gathered over 46,000 tons of grain and legumes, along with nearly 5,000 tons of rapeseed and around 2,000 tons of vegetables.

In total, local farmers sowed nearly 220,000 hectares of land for the 2025 season. However, the spring season presented new challenges. Frost and drought damaged or destroyed crops on more than 50,000 hectares, the press release says.

According to the Kherson Administration, preliminary losses to farmers exceed Hr.1 billion ($23.9 million).

300 farms have already applied for formal recording of their losses. Commissions have been created in the regions to assess the situation. The Kherson Administration also appealed to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and international partners to receive assistance for local farmers, Butriy said. 

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At the beginning of 2022, Russian troops occupied almost the entire territory of the Kherson region, including the capital city of Kherson. That year, Ukraine was left without its own watermelon harvest and had to import about 80% of its needs from Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Greece, ArgoPolit reported in 2023.

In November 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated the right-bank part of the region with Kherson and the following year watermelons returned to Ukrainian markets.

Russia is continuously attacking these liberated lands with drones, burning crops and attempting to kill farmers and farm workers. Around 5,000 hectares of fields in the Kherson Region were burned after three days of Russian drone attacks in June, Kyiv Post reported. 

Russia also tries to directly kill farmers in the fields using FPV drones, United24 Media previously reported showing footage of farmers running away from drones while collecting harvests. 

Russian attacks on Ukrainian fields happened simultaneously with the 2025 frosts, periods of drought, lack of irrigation resulting from the draining of the Kakhovka Reservoir after Russians blew up the Kakhovka Dam hydroelectric power station, which Moscow had mined from the first day of the full-scale invasion, on June 6, 2023.