KYIV, UKRAINE — Nibulon, a leader in Ukrainian grain exports, announced that it is resuming agricultural operations in the Mykolaiv region, near the village of Lepetykha, by restoring farmland that has been unused since the start of the full-scale invasion by Russia in February 2022.

The company said these fields, located within a former combat zone, had become overgrown with weeds, and could only be returned to productive use after undergoing humanitarian demining.

“We will continue to bring land affected by mine contamination back into agricultural use,” said Vladyslav Hryhoriev, head of the demining department at Nibulon.

He said nontechnical survey activities have been completed on 584 hectares, with another 913 hectares currently being processed. The company plans to return more than 2,200 hectares to agricultural production in the area. On the cleared plots, soil preparation is already underway in anticipation of winter crop sowing, Nibulon said.

The land is state-owned and has been leased to Nibulon under a sublease agreement, the company noted. Due to limited government capacity to swiftly clear all mined and contaminated land, agricultural producers, including Nibulon, are taking the initiative to restore safety and return previously inaccessible land to productive agricultural use.

The effort is part of the company’s broader strategy to expand its land bank and contribute to the recovery of the region’s agricultural potential, Hryhoriey said. In 2023, Nibulon initiated the development of Ukraine’s first specialized vessel for demining inland waterways. The vessel was built at Nibulon’s shipyard during wartime.

Ukraine has lost 20.5% of its agricultural land since the start of the full-scale war, according to a report by Ukraine Business News.