As missiles and drones fly overhead, Tatyana refuses to stop planting

Boyarka, Ukraine: In a town about 30 minutes’ drive south-west of Kyiv, where Russian troops once came within a few kilometres, a garden blooms defiantly.

Nailed to a wooden gate are three signs. They read: “My garden, my rules”. “Warning, dogs live here” and a message specially for Putin’s army: “Go Away!”

Tatyana, 43, tends to the garden daily – lavender, strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, and soon, edible flowers.

Tatyana cares for her elderly mother in the urban fringes of Kyiv. She grows fruit, vegetables and flowers in the family plot and hopes to commercialise an edible flowers business. Credit: Joe Callanan / World Vision Australia

“When the war started, I tried to work as much as possible in the garden,” she says. “It helped distract me … it’s a place of peace, although, something [missiles or drones] is always flying overhead.”

Across Ukraine, women like Tatyana are turning to the land – not just to survive, but to reclaim control in a time of chaos. With the war in its third year, Ukraine’s resilience is increasingly being cultivated far from the front lines: in backyard plots, vineyards, and community greenhouses tended by women who are becoming the stewards of rural recovery.

To grow food is not just a practical act – it is part of a nation’s identity. Ukraine is known historically as the “breadbasket of Europe”, and its rich chernozem soil has long symbolised sovereignty, sustenance, and cultural continuity.

Olena and Maryna are also learning about cultivation to build a new life for themselves.Credit: Joe Callanan/World Vision

Even during Soviet collectivisation, when private farming was outlawed, Ukrainians kept secret gardens and greenhouses – quietly preserving a sacred tradition of self-reliance.

“Cultivating land has always been how we express love, heritage, and resistance,” says Olena Shvetsova, a historian and mother of four who is also turning her skills to growing food. “It’s in our folklore, our recipes, our memory.”

On a plot of land in the northern Kyiv region, she grows organic grapes and garlic with her husband, who suffered life-changing injuries as a soldier during an anti-terrorism operation in 2014.

“My goal is to produce environmentally friendly grapes, so our children can drink clean juice and eat healthy food,” Olena, 46, says. “One of humanity’s most precious assets is our children. We strive to become better for their sake.”

Olena and Maryna, whose lives have been shaped by the war in Ukraine, have gone back to study to learn how to turn family allotments into livelihoods. Credit: Joe Callanan / World Vision Australia

Traditionally, Ukrainian women have played central – but often unrecognised – roles in agriculture. Now, with men conscripted, injured, or lost to war, women are stepping into roles once reserved for men, managing and commercialising farms and allotments and rebuilding infrastructure.

According to a 2024 study by Organic Initiative, women now lead 27 per cent of organic farms, up from 20.8 per cent in 2021. Organic agriculture – less entrenched in generational gender norms – has become a space for innovation and female leadership.

A recent UN Women report underscores the toll of war on women: of the 3.7 million people officially displaced within Ukraine, 56 per cent are women. More tellingly, women make up 93 per cent of the 4.6 million returnees – many of whom come back to ruined homes, no support networks, and no clear means of livelihood.

It is in this gap – between displacement and recovery – that charities such as World Vision Australia are offering financial support for courses in sustainable agriculture, greenhouse management, and small business skills tailored to women navigating the aftermath of war.

These livelihood trainings – in partnership with local institutions – not only build agricultural skills, but also foster confidence, networks, and economic independence. For many women, the land becomes both therapy and opportunity.

Maryna, a nurse and mother of three, joined the program after fleeing Donetsk following her husband’s sudden death in late 2023. She eventually resettled in the Taraviska community in the Kyiv region.

“I needed to find strength again – not just for myself, but for my kids,” she says. “Learning to work the land gives me that. It gives us a future.”

Though new to formal training, Maryna grew up farming with her parents on a two-hectare plot – now under occupation. They grew vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkin – all the ingredients to make borsch, an Eastern European staple.

Olena and Maryna in their classroom.Credit: Joe Callanan/World Vision

In the larger fields, they grew corn, sunflowers, and wheat.

“Of course it’s painful. But we still have hope. Maybe we can come back. Or maybe we create something here.”

Her eldest son, 16, now works beside her. “We grow together,” she says.

One of the key implementing partners on the ground is the Boyarka College of Ecology and Natural Resources, where Larisa Yashchenko heads the practical training, especially in greenhouse cultivation and open-field farming.

Charities are offering women financial support for courses in sustainable agriculture, greenhouse management, and small business skills, to help them navigate the aftermath of war.Credit: Joe Callanan/World Vision

She says the partnership has transformed the college, which normally teaches teenagers.

“Now, we work with adults – many of them mothers and widows. It’s not just education. It’s experience-sharing. These women bring knowledge, strength, and purpose.”

The benefits are mutual. “We’ve improved our greenhouse, updated our equipment, and even adjusted our programming,” she says. “This support allows us to grow – not just plants, but possibilities.”

In total, 61 women enrolled, attending sessions, building business plans, and tending their land with new confidence. Some are displaced. Some live in war-damaged homes. All are cultivating more than food.

“Ukrainians can do anything,” Yashchenko says. “We don’t just need aid – we need opportunities. Let us work, and we’ll rebuild ourselves.”

In a country where 76 per cent of organic farms report labour shortages and 62 per cent lack skilled technical workers, women are stepping in to fill critical gaps. Yet many lack access to tools, markets, and training – especially in areas traditionally designed for men.

World Vision’s Ukraine Crisis Response director Arman Grigoryan says training women on how to be successful in agriculture is quintessentially Ukrainian and helps them find their feet.

“This is just one example of how we can create a ‘new normal’ for families whose lives have been upended by this war,” he says.

Indeed, these women are not just growing food for survival – they’re creating market-ready products.

Tatyana has a sign on her garden gate especially for the Russians: Go Away! Three years ago they came within a few kilometres, while their missiles fly overhead most days. Credit: Joe Callanan / World Vision Australia

Tatyana, for example, who also cares for her elderly mother, is developing a plan to grow edible flowers for use on cake decorations and in salads.

“They’re expensive, they’re in demand, and no one’s supplying them locally,” she says. “I already spoke with cafes – they said yes. They’re ready.”

Time is her only barrier. “The training was fast – just two months instead of three. When you’re not 18, it’s harder to learn everything quickly,” she says with a smile.

Despite all her community has lost, Tatyana refuses to stop planting. She remembers the blast wave that hit her street, knocking flowers from her windows. She still hasn’t repaired a window shattered by a recent hailstorm.

“Why bother?” she shrugs. “What if a missile hits tomorrow?”

But her actions speak louder than her doubts, with vegetables and flowers stretching across her modest yard.

“If we survive the night, we go to work. If not – well, we don’t,” she half-jokes. “That’s our flexible schedule now.”

Maryna, too, sees land as therapy.

“Before, nursing was everything,” she says. “But now I want to create something alive.”

Olena dreams of expanding their vineyard into a guest farm, where visitors from other communities – and even other countries – can taste the land’s bounty and learn from their resilience.

“That’s how we grow as a country,” she says.

What these women are doing extends far beyond gardens or greenhouses. They are building a new social fabric – community-led, self-sufficient, and rooted in both tradition and innovation.

And in doing so, they are sketching a road map for Ukraine’s recovery: not one of mere survival, but of flourishing through vineyards, backyard beds, and communal plots.

That hope is already taking root – tended by women who, even in the shadow of war, choose to plant peace.

“We are growing not just food,” Olena says. “We are growing hope.”

The author travelled to Ukraine with the support of World Vision Australia.

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