Ukraine's Dobropark was used as a base for the Russian military during the opening weeks of the 2022 invasion. Despite having much of its infrastructure destroyed by retreating occupation forces, millions of tulips are now beginning to bloom and the park is set to reopen on April 27.
KYIV -- In the spring of 2022, Ukrainian soldiers moving cautiously through land west of Kyiv abandoned by retreating Russian forces were confronted by a surreal scene. In the grounds of Dobropark, Ukraine's largest private park, fields of exotic flowers were beginning to bloom surrounded by the fire-darkened devastation of war.
A combination photo showing the main building of Dobropark before the Russian invasion and the site in May 2022 after the site allegedly served as a staging post for Russia's invasion but had been partly restored.
Viktoria Ryzhkova, the director of Dobropark, was in Poland when she received photos sent by the military reconnaissance team.
"It was awful," she says, remembering scrolling through the images in April 2022.
Viktoria Ryzhkova
The main building of Dobropark was reduced to a pile of charred rubble and the grounds of the site littered with the potentially lethal detritus of war.
Dobropark management claims there was no fighting on the site. It is unclear why its main building was destroyed.
A gardener tends to rows of lavender on April 24.
Dobropark was first established in 2019 as "a unique and sustainable green space" in rural land around 40 kilometers west of central Kyiv. With sculpted gardens of lavender, 3 million tulips, and a lake built to mimic Claude Monet's famous lily pond, the site quickly became a popular day trip from Kyiv for paying visitors.
Tulips were beginning to bloom in Dobropark on April 24. Holland donated around 400,000 of the flowers for the 2023 season.
Shortly after the 2022 invasion, a Russian commander in one of the columns of military vehicles prowling toward Kyiv chose the park as a staging point for the invading army, and on February 26 a field hospital was set up on Dobropark's grounds.
A gazebo in Dobropark
"There were 340 armored vehicles here," Ryzhkova claims, adding that "Russian soldiers lived in the houses built for our employees and set up showers inside our greenhouses."
Gardeners at work on April 24
After the Russian retreat and with the park back in Ukrainian hands, Ryzhkova says she got to work finding a private ordnance disposal team who spent a week combing through flowerbeds and the rest of the grounds for explosives.
Gardeners were then able to move in to tear out weeds and sculpt the famous gardens back into shape.
The remnants of what was once Dobropark's main building.
Today in Dobropark, the site where the destroyed main building stood has been cleared except for guardian lions and the charred stumps of two trees that stood at the building's main entrance.
A children's carousel installed on the site serves "to show people that life will continue," Ryzhkova says.
Daffodils in a patch of forest in Dobropark
The park now hosts wounded Ukrainian soldiers and children traumatized by war, who stroll through the flowers and play sports.
"Every weekend we cooperate with military hospitals and psychological specialists. It's very important, just to make this world better," Ryzhkova says.
Dobropark photographed on April 24
Dobropark will open its gates to the public on April 27 with the beginning of the tulip season. Lavender flowers and lilies are due to appear in the coming weeks.