A massive locust invasion threatens sunflowers and other crops in the southern regions of Ukraine. It is largely due to the war with Russia, which makes it impossible to use traditional pest control methods, Reuters reports, citing government officials and producers, BTA reported.
The locusts, which can destroy vast areas of agricultural crops in a matter of days, traditionally breed in secluded places along rivers or in uncultivated areas, and controlling them is almost impossible in regions adjacent to the front line.
The situation is complicated by record high temperatures this summer, the inability to use aircraft to combat the locusts and the absence of birds - the locusts' natural enemies, which avoid the fighting zone.
Local and state officials have declined to provide data on the extent of the locust attack or the damage caused so far, Reuters writes.
Ukraine is the world's largest exporter of sunflower oil and before the war, it was the fifth-largest wheat exporter.
Swarms of locusts have covered roads, fields and bushes in the Zaporizhia region, and farmers say the insects have destroyed up to a third of their sunflower crop.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, has partially occupied the southern Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhia, Nikolaev and Kherson, forcing farmers to abandon their fields. Grain and oilseed crops are traditional for these regions.
Denys Marchuk, deputy chairman of Ukraine's largest agricultural union (UAC), said that the demolition of the "Kakhovka" dam on the Dnieper River by Russian troops two years ago created vast swampy areas where locusts breed.
Kiev claims that Russia blew up the "Kakhovka" dam in the summer of 2023, causing huge amounts of water to leak out and leaving farms and Europe's largest nuclear power plant without water.