<mark>for the June 6-19, 2022 period. The appendix also includes examples of ‘before-after’ images to illustrate the most frequent types of damages such as fields having been hit by bombs, rockets, aircraft wreckage, or artillery shells; having been the scene of direct fighting and associated fires; or crops having been destroyed or damaged due to traffic by heavy vehicles and tanks is clearly visible. For each VC and any of the</mark> twoweek periods after Feb. 24, 2022, we define an indicator variable for whether or not such damage was sustained and, if yes, add up <mark>the size of agricultural area affected.</mark> Summary statistics for these variables are presented in the first two columns of table 1 for two sub-periods, i.e., the 8-week period from Feb. 24 to April 24 values from which are used in regressions for winter crop area and a second 8-week period from April 25 to June 18 (together with values from Feb. 24) is included as a right-hand side variable in NDVI regressions. By April 24, 3.7% or 379 VCs nation-wide had been affected by direct damages to fields with an average damaged area of 498 ha per VC. This had increased by one point to 4.8% by June 18 with an average damaged area of 614 ha. By June 18, the total area of damaged fields stood at 292,262 ha (476*614).

Over time, the largest extent of damages was experienced in period 2 when damages were experienced in 2.3% of villages, decreasing to 0.6% in period 3 and 1.1% in period 4, largely in line with the abandonment of positions in areas surrounding Kyiv and Kharkiv by the Russian army. The share of VCs experiencing crop damage then dipped below 1% in periods 5 and 6, while surpassing it (with 1.4% and 1.1%) in periods 7 and 8. In affected villages, the intensity of fighting was about equal in periods 2 and 4, damaging about 450 ha per affected VC before subsiding and then increasing again in periods 7 and 8.

<mark>In addition to image-based data on direct damages, information on whether VCs were o</mark> ccupied, a scene of active conflict, or counted with Russian troop presence <mark>is available online based on daily situational reports from local and regional military administrations at the level of settlements.</mark><sup>12</sup> <mark>We draw on these sources to compute indicators of relevant parameters including a dummy for any conflict activity. Columns 3-6 of</mark> table 1 show that by phase 4, 18.4% of VCs had been affected by any conflict activity. As subsequently the conflict entered a more static phase with active fighting concentrated in the East of the country, information on the location of fighting or troop presence shows less change over time and information on field damages provide a more informative signal.

# **3.2 Winter crop cover**

To provide training data for generation of crop cover estimates using machine learning techniques, _in-situ_ data collection along main roads following standard guidelines (Waldner _et al._ 2019) was undertaken yearly from 2019-2021. In each year, two extended field trips, one for the winter and one for summer crops, were conducted (see figure 1 for route maps in each year). While conflict conditions

> 12 Open source conflict monitoring data (https://novy.tv/ru/news/2022/06/02/karta-bojovyh-dij-v-ukrayini/ and <u>https://liveuamap.com/ru/time).</u> 8