Young women from across Ontario kept food production going during the war under the farmerette program. Photo: We Lend a Hand.

Women who fed a nation

More than 40,000 young women supported the war effort between the 1940s and early 1950s, helping grow and harvest crops amid labour shortages. They were called Farmerettes.










Daughter Kateryna Zhovtyak founded a bakery before the war, but is now in uniform.

From Ukraine: On the home front

Polina Zhovtyak keeps the home fires burning as her husband and daughter serve in the Ukrainian army

Reading Time: 5 minutes Glacier FarmMedia – After more than two years of all-out war, I have heard many incredible stories of people and how they cope, survive and even thrive. At times I think I will be surprised by nothing. In some parts of the country, in relatively peaceful regions, some live much as they did before the […] Read more


A man is seen outside the house damaged by Russian shelling, Odesa Region, southern Ukraine. (Photo by Nina Liashonok/Ukrinform/Sipa USA)

What is war fatigue?

If the West is 'tired' of the war in Ukraine, consider the reality of Ukrainians

As we approached the end of December, my mood, like that of most Ukrainians, was not at all Christmassy. The heroic achievement of 2022, when our lives hung in the balance and our defenders managed to repel the enemy, was replaced by the bloody routine of 2023.

The lifespan of a civilian vehicle retrofitted for wartime use in Ukraine can be very short. Here Ukrainian servicemen from the 65th Mechanized Brigade stand by a burnt-out car near a Russian position they overran in southeastern Ukraine.

Civilian cars and ancient farm machinery

Ukraine’s history of making do pays off in wartime as farmers support the war

Reading Time: 5 minutes Ukraine’s agriculture is diverse and so is the equipment on Ukrainian farms. Near my town, a German-made NEXAT transformer unit is working in the fields and is one of few in the world. It’s a massive all-in-one machine that handles every step in crop production: spring cultivation, seeding, crop protection and harvesting. While this is […] Read more