The farmer-resettler Oleksandr Kononov brought the herd of goats to the pasture. Kononov has no right arm and left leg – he lost them in the accident on the sawmill.
Oleksandr Kononov poses in a mask of goat
Oleksandr Kononov together with fellow woman Alla are treated to a sick goat in a resettled hut. At home, Alexander often moves on a wheelchair because it is difficult to constantly wear a prosthesis
The farmer, Oleksandr Kononov, comes to the farm with the assistant boy
Resettler Oleksandr Kononov listens to a Sunday service in the village of Irshansk, not far from Desyatyny village, where he lives
Oleksandr Kononov is trying to taste the dew, grows near the house of his companion by the farm
Goats on the farm of the settler Oleksandr Kononov
Oleksandr Kononov filters the milk obtained from the evening milking. Until the deep night he will prepare the cheese.
Buyers on the market in Zhytomyr taste the cheeses made by the farmer-settler Oleksandr Kononov
The carcass of the newly-slaughtered goat in the house where Oleksandr Kononov lives
Oleksandr Kononov throws firewood in a steam bath, where cheese “ricotta” is cooking. This sort of cheese is prepared from the secondary milk serum.
Farmer Oleksandr Kononov erases the fingernails with a stone bar from the finger of the left hand. This is the way he cuts his nails with a single hand.
Farmer-migrant Oleksandr Kononov caresses the goat from his flock
The herd of goats on Kononov farm drives to a stall at sunset.
Foot prosthesis of Oleksandr Kononov. Inside his home the migrant usually moves using only invalid carriage.
Oleksandr Kononov lived in Severodonetsk, Lugansk region, when the war in Donbass started. He became a volunteer – drove his car delivering the products to Aydar battalion soldiers. Kononov was captured by the separatists, and spent three months in detention. After being released he left his native land to realize a dream. Migrant established goats’ farm in the remote village Desiatyny of Zhitomir area, 160 kilometers from Kyiv.
Kononov has no right arm and left leg – he lost them long before the war as a result of the accident at the sawmill. But he doesn’t consider himself as disabled person coping with most necessities of life alone. Now Kononov farm has more than 160 goats and sheeps, there are four employees caring and helping to milk animals. This farm – the only place in the village where someone can find paid work.
Oleksandr Kononov aims to transform the abandoned village to the center of green tourism and goat cheese production in the region.