The director of a Ukrainian farm has spoken of the ‘catastrophic’ damage caused by a Russian attack that killed more than 13,000 pigs on his farm.
During the overnight attack on October 3, Russian forces hit Svitanok Farm, in the Kharkiv Oblast, north east Ukraine, sending over 20 drones that blew up farm buildings and killed thousands of animals.
Around 1,250 sows and 15,000 pigs were kept on this farm which supplied pork meat to retailers all around Ukraine. The farm’s buildings have been completely destroyed – and the cost of the damage is estimated to exceed US$7.5 million.
This appears to be part of a strategy now for Russia to attack significant sources of food in Ukraine, including large farms and food processors.
Oleksandr Kolisnyk, director of Svitanok farm, said there has been catastrophic damage to his farm infrastructure, leaving some buildings completely destroyed.
“From just after 1am until 5am the Russians bombed our farm with a number of Shahed and Geran kamikaze drones,” he said. “We counted about 24 explosions, and our Ukrainian rescue forces confirmed 20 explosions.”
“The bombs hit many of our buildings, totally destroying them. We cannot use them for pigs again, they will have to be rebuilt. We have lost over 13,000 pigs in this attack, that’s years of breeding and production totally lost in just a few hours.
“The Russians aimed at our pig farm on purpose, hitting us for four hours long with intervals of 20 to 40 minutes between each drone attack.
“We also lost some buildings used for storage, but having over 13,000 pigs killed is really a catastrophe. The Shahed drones flew right into our barns and exploded there on impact.
“Everything inside the barns burned, including the pigs. You can just imagine the chaotic scenes there, and the noise. It’s a total devastation,” he said.
Food production
While this attack will cost the farm millions of dollars to rebuild and replace the pigs, there is an even bigger cost to Ukraine’s food production.
As the Russians increasingly target food sources, Oksana Yurchenko, president of the Association of Ukrainian Pig Breeders, said some areas of Ukraine have completely lost all their pig production farms and facilities.
He said: ”Regions closest to active hostilities, near the front lines, have suffered the most, including Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts.
“The Russians are hitting our food lines, including one of our major pork processors, Miasnoy MK, which has been shelled and significantly damaged three times since the war began.
“Due to the ongoing conflict, pig production has been lost entirely in Sumy, Kherson, and Donetsk oblasts. This includes the country’s largest pig producer, APK-Invest, which had over 23,000 sows in a farrow-to-finish operation, now all destroyed.
“Before the war, the Donetsk oblast had the largest commercial swine population in Ukraine, but that has been wiped out.
“Another major challenge facing the industry is the widespread power shortages and blackouts caused by Russian attacks. These affect not only farms, many of which now rely on generators for days at a time, but the entire supply chain.
“Slaughterhouses and processors are buying fewer pigs due to the high cost and risk of operating cold storage on generator power, while retail sales of pork drop significantly as well.”
