At the Hryshko National Botanical Garden in Kyiv, part of the tropical plant collection has died due to prolonged power outages and the lack of stable heating. Temperatures in the Grand Domed Greenhouse drop to nearly zero, while tropical species need at least +18°C to survive. Staff are forced to heat the premises with improvised means to save a collection that has been built up over decades.
“We have a huge problem with heating. Our tropical plants, which we have been collecting since the end of World War II, are now under threat of freezing and extinction,” KYIV24 reports, as cited by Humanitarian Media Hub.
The botanical garden is a research institution of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. It houses more than four thousand species of tropical and subtropical plants from different continents. Some of these species have nearly disappeared from their natural habitats.
The greenhouse complex covers an area of more than two thousand square meters. Its central feature is a domed greenhouse with a glass cupola 32 meters high. In peacetime, it maintained the microclimate of a tropical rainforest.
After Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, it has become impossible to ensure the required conditions. The plants are experiencing cold stress. For many of them, this poses a direct threat of death.
In the collection greenhouses, where the most valuable specimens are kept, alternative heating is partially in operation. In exhibition spaces, temperatures remain critically low. The garden lacks funds for full backup power, so staff light stoves and metal barrels with fire directly on the grounds.
January 2026 became one of the most difficult months for Kyiv during the full-scale war. After massive attacks, hundreds of residential buildings remain without heat, and electricity is supplied for only a few hours a day. This directly affects the work of the capital’s scientific and cultural institutions as well.
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