On the night of May 24-25, 2025, agricultural enterprises in the Chernihiv and Kharkiv regions were targeted by Russian missiles and Shahed drones, according to the Ukrainian Agri Council.
The enterprises were engaged in livestock farming and potato cultivation and were among the largest in their communities.
Both farms are members of the Ukrainian Agri Council which has said that the farms were destroyed.
In the Chernihiv region, a potato storage facility with built-in equipment and containers and a sorting shop were destroyed.
A neighbouring storage facility, a grain warehouse, and a shed between the warehouses were significantly damaged, according to the agri council.
Mykola Gordiychuk, director of Agrico Ukraine LLC, said: “The production stocks in the storage facility were completely destroyed.
“The blast wave damaged agricultural machinery: tractors, a planter, a Manitou loader, and much more.
“Some of the machinery was completely destroyed, some was damaged. According to preliminary estimates, the total losses of the enterprise already exceed €1.5 million. The assessment of the damage is still ongoing.”
Agrico Ukraine LLC is the Ukrainian representative of the Dutch potato cooperative Agrico, which specialises in the selection and production of seed potatoes.
It is a leader in potato seed production in Ukraine and occupies more than 50% of the market. It owns several potato storage facilities located in two locations, equipped with sorting and packaging lines.
The potato storage facilities serve as permanent training sites for industrial potato producers.
In the Kharkiv region, a month ago, on April 28, the Ukrainian Agri Council published news that a farm in the region had been attacked by 10 Shahed drones. Less than a month later, the farm was again subjected to an attack.
Oleksandr Krasovsky, director of AGROSERVIS SG said: “This is the third time the enterprise has suffered destruction and massive losses since the full-scale invasion began.
“Our farm was one of the leading milk producers in the region. The losses already amount to more than €3 million.
“We had not yet recovered from the previous attack when the Shahed drones killed dozens more cows and destroyed the rest of our property.”
According to Oleksandr, a month ago, at least 100 of the 281 dairy cows died immediately after being hit claiming that many cows were burned alive.
As a result of the attack, three main cowsheds, a calf barn, storage facilities, and an administrative building were destroyed. All of the company’s equipment was destroyed.
Chair of the Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC) Andrii Dykun said that due to Russian aggression, 1,241 Ukrainian agricultural enterprises have ceased to exist since February 2022 and more than 500,000 cows have been killed.
“The Russians are deliberately destroying Ukraine’s agricultural sector because they know that we are their biggest competitor,” he said.
“The smaller Ukraine’s presence on third-country markets, the more opportunities they have to take these markets for themselves. The harder it will be for all of us, including EU countries, to maintain global food security,” he added.