Soils of war: The toxic legacy for Ukraine's breadbasket

A view of the depression from shelling in field of grain farmer Andrii Povod that has been damaged by shelling and trenches, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Bilozerka, Kherson region, Ukraine, February 20, 2023. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

BILOZERKA, Ukraine (Reuters) - When Ukraine recaptured Kherson in November, Andrii Povod returned to find his grain farm in ruins. Two tractors were missing, most of the wheat was gone and all 11 buildings used to store crops and machinery had been bombed and burned.

The farm bears the scars of Russian shelling and unexploded ordnance riddles the fields but it's the less visible damage to Ukraine's famously fertile soil after a year of war that could be the hardest to repair.