Quantifying war-induced crop losses in Ukraine in near real time to strengthen local and global food security

•We combine measures of direct field damage due to combat activity together with crop cover data based on remotely sensed imagery to assess effects of the war in Ukraine on winter crop area and yield at village level in near real time.•Drops in area and yield attributable to direct conflict are relatively modest and overall output reductions are below those reported in other more aggregate sources.•The conflict has a more severe negative effect on small farmers due to their limited ability to diversify and programs to target support to these have already been launched.