---
title: "Healing Ukraine's Wounded Soil"
date: 2025-09-18T00:00:00-04:00
author: Ella LaGrange
canonical_url: "https://forward.umd.edu/news/healing-ukraines-wounded-soil"
section: News
---
# Healing Ukraine's Wounded Soil

*September 18, 2025* — by Ella LaGrange
> Soil Scientist Ray Weil Aids Ukrainian Farmers

<span>The devastation wrought on Ukraine by its eastern neighbor began well before Russia’s brutal 2022 invasion. For many decades, Ukraine’s famed black soil, among the most fertile on Earth, suffered under the destructive, state managed collective agriculture introduced during the Soviet era. </span>  
  
<span>Years of harsh, outdated farming practices degraded those soils, and yet, today, they supply most of the world’s sunflower products and a large portion of global wheat and barley. Agriculture brings in 40% of Ukrainian export dollars—essential income to a country at war. Farmers there are eager to repair their land and improve their harvests.</span>

- [Meet Soil Scientist Ray Weil](https://agnr.umd.edu/momentum-magazine/winterspring-2026/healing-ukraines-wounded-soil/)