It’s all TikTok’s fault: dozens of Kyiv residents stormed a closed botanical garden to meet the sunrise
7 May 2024 11:08
A post on TikTok led dozens of Kyiv residents to break the rules and climb over the fence of the Hryshko National Botanical Garden at dawn to watch the sunrise from a local observation deck.
The young Kyiv residents arrived at the entrance to the capital’s iconic botanical garden at the same time as the sunrise, but it was expectedly closed. After all, the botanical garden has a strict work schedule and opens later. This didn’t stop people from climbing over the fence, disrupting public order.
The event became quite resonant for the city – it was even covered by a local TV channel.
As it turned out, it was all down to a post or posts on TikTok, where the same troublemakers showed how beautiful the sunrise in the botanical garden was. For example, here’s one of the most popular videos on the subject, filmed before the incident.
The botanical garden itself reacted quite harshly. They stressed that the Hryshko National Botanical Garden is not a public park, but a scientific institution of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Its territory is part of the nature reserve fund of Ukraine, and the botanical garden itself has clear rules for visiting and a set schedule.
“A garden with more than 17 thousand!!! species, varieties and forms of plants! A garden that contains the largest collections, some of which have been granted the status of National Heritage of Ukraine!!! The garden, which is almost 90 years old, which was created by the incredible efforts of several generations of workers, in the most difficult post-war years and was preserved and multiplied in the difficult 90s and continues to develop now, has recently been subjected to an unauthorised invasion of visitors who want to “meet the dawn” or take photos at dawn and in the morning, even before the institution starts working.”
– the institution is angry.
They added that the staff of the institution asks for respect for their work and calls on Kyiv residents to visit the garden exclusively according to the rules and at the set time.
Thus, during the period of lilac blooming and mass visits to the botanical garden in May 2024, the M.M. Hryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is open to visitors seven days a week from 7:00 to 22:00. The ticket office is open from 8:00 to 21:30. From 7:00 to 8:00, entrance tickets can be purchased only by cashless payment at the entrance (through Pay Pass turnstiles).
The greenhouse complex is open to the public daily from 11:00 to 18:00, ticket sales are carried out at the entrance to the greenhouses, closing at 17:30, sanitary days: Monday, Tuesday.
