From bombs to blooms in Ukraine

Arutyun's return to the land

When Arutyun was six years old, he left his birthplace of Armenia to move to Ukraine with his family. Now, a few decades later, it seems fated that he would come to live in Europe’s agricultural heartland.

By age nine, he was tending to several beehives and harvesting honey. By the time he finished high school, he was pursuing agronomy at an agricultural university. 

"Even as a child, I knew that I wanted to work in agriculture,” he said. “And neither war nor injury changed my mind.”

Today, he owns around 370 acres of land near a village in the Kharkiv region.

There, he has been hard at work for the last few years restoring a homestead. The property is home to not only himself, but around 100 beehives, each holding up to 80,000 bees. He also has flocks of ducks and chickens and an orchard full of fruit trees.

He insists that the homestead is just a hobby. He makes his primary income from cultivating sunflowers and corn, two major global exports for Ukraine. 

When the war came to his doorstep in 2022, he left his homestead to reunite with his family. Together, they escaped to a safer oblast.

After six months, Ukrainian forces freed his village. He felt a strong urge to return and help rebuild his community.

As Arutyun helped military engineers clear mines from roads near the town, he and another farmer drove their tractors to level the ground.

Not every mine had been cleared. The tractor hit an anti-vehicle mine, injuring his right eye and damaging his vision.

Losing a significant amount of eyesight was immensely difficult. But he is not letting it slow him down. If anything, he is full of renewed energy.

For many, the empty boxes from ammunition and rocket motor casings left behind by armed forces might serve as sad reminders of life under occupation.

But Arutyun has given them a new purpose that fosters life, rather than destroys it. He uses them to build new beehives and birdhouses.

For a farmer, land is more than livelihood. Land is life. When all 370 acres of Arutyun's land became unsafe because of landmines and explosives, his family faced a loss of income and purpose.

But in 2025, deminers finished clearing part of Arutyun’s land. After three long years, it was finally safe to plant again.

While there is still work to be done until all the land is safe, he has taken full advantage of the progress that has been made so far.

For the first time since 2022, he has fully sowed his fields with sunflowers. The crop already looks promising.

A successful crop of sunflowers relies on many factors: weather, timing, and chance, to name a few. But despite the uncertainty, his commitment to his crop doesn't waver.

And even if this year’s harvest falls short, he believes next year’s will be even better.

It's supporters like you who are helping to bring Arutyun's fields back to life. Around the world, farmers are getting back to their fields after landmine clearance – feeding families, communities, and the world.

Give today to be part of spreading this revival even further.