KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — On his way to the Kyiv train station to greet his wife and daughter returning from Poland to Ukraine, Oleksander Tryfonov made a stop.
He bought two red roses from one of a half-dozen flower shops lining a dimly lit underpass — something beautiful for the two most precious people in his life.
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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — On his way to the Kyiv train station to greet his wife and daughter returning from Poland to Ukraine, Oleksander Tryfonov made a stop.
Olha Lyhvar landscape designer of Dobro Park. Motyzhyn, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Dobro Park, a 370-acre (150 hectare) privately-run garden and recreation area west of Kyiv, was rebuilt after the Russian attack and occupation that lasted for more than a month. "This entire area was occupied by the Russian military," the park's landscape designer Olha Lyhvar said. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
People walk by the flower-decorated remains of the entrance to Dobro Park hotel, which was burned and destroyed during the Russian occupation of Kyiv region, in Motyzhyn, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Dobro Park, a 370-acre (150 hectare) privately-run garden and recreation area west of Kyiv, was rebuilt after the Russian attack and occupation that lasted for more than a month. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
A woman swings from a heart-shaped flower installation in Dobro Park, Motyzhyn, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. They burst out of planters that line the capital's backroads and grand boulevards and are fixed to lampposts. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
A tractor decorated with flowers is seen linked with a chain to a grass-covered Russian tank, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. The tractor symbolises Ukrainian resilience, reminiscent of the early days of the full-scale invasion when ordinary people used tractors to help the military transport abandoned Russian equipment. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
A traсtor decorated with flowers and a Ukrainian flag, is seen in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. The tractor symbolises Ukrainian resilience, reminiscent of the early days of the full-scale invasion when ordinary people used tractors to help the military transport abandoned Russian equipment. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
Tulips are placed among Ukrainian flags in memory of fallen fighters, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. They burst out of planters that line the capital's backroads and grand boulevards and are fixed to lampposts. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
Olha Semynog stands by her flower stall in an underpass in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. They burst out of planters that line the capital's backroads and grand boulevards and are fixed to lampposts. Semynog sells bunches of flowers for $2.50 all the way up to giant bouquets for $75. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
A boy walks through the lavender field in Dobro Park, Motyzhyn, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Dobro Park, a 370-acre (150 hectare) privately-run garden and recreation area west of Kyiv, was rebuilt after the Russian attack and occupation that lasted for more than a month.(AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
A woman buys bouquets of flowers at a street flower stall in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. They burst out of planters that line the capital's backroads and grand boulevards and are fixed to lampposts. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
A woman takes photos in the lavender field in Dobro Park, Motyzhyn, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Dobro Park, a 370-acre (150 hectare) privately-run garden and recreation area west of Kyiv, was rebuilt after the Russian attack and occupation that lasted for more than a month.(AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
Various flowers are seen in front of a field of flags in memory of fallen fighters, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. They burst out of planters that line the capital's backroads and grand boulevards and are fixed to lampposts. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
“I haven’t seen them for two years,” Tryfonov, a burly 45-year-old driver said of his family. “Flowers are important for women.”
Flowers have always been linked with Ukraine's culture, but since Russia's 2022 invasion, their significance has only grown, with blooms becoming a symbol of both resistance and hope.
Despite hardships brought by war — or perhaps because of them — Ukrainians take every chance they can to fill Kyiv and other cities with flowers from the country's vast rural heartland, anxious to reconnect with and rediscover their roots.
Deep purple petunias and yellow rock roses burst out of planters that line Kyiv’s backroads and grand boulevards. Some are fixed to lampposts; flowers can even be spotted in Ukraine’s prison yards.
They are depicted on Ukrainian banknotes, textile patterns and murals — next to advertising billboards and army recruitment posters. Across the country, young men on dates and soldiers, sometimes missing a limb, carry bouquets on their return home.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy famously brought a bouquet on a hospital visit in 2022 to a teenage girl injured while fleeing advancing Russian forces outside Kyiv.
At an underpass flower stall below Kyiv’s central Maidan Square, vendor Olha Semynog sells bunches of flowers for $2.50 each. For those with more in their pockets, she can go all the way up to a giant bouquet for $75.
Even during wartime, her busiest day, she says, is March 8 — International Women’s Day. Her business has also picked up with men drafted into the military sending flowers home with online orders.
On the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, where the Russian advance was halted two years ago, residents still tend to the gardens of their damaged or completely destroyed homes. A park in Kyiv, near the left bank of the Dnieper River, features a large flower installation, welcoming F-16 fighter jets due to arrive this summer from Ukraine's Western allies.
Flowers, explains Iryna Bielobrova, head of Ukraine’s Florists’ Association, are inextricably linked with Ukrainians’ culture, traditions and celebrated stages of life. They are also an emotional connection with the land.
“Life cannot be bright, full, and rich without flowers,” she said. “Wreaths of flowers are preserved for years, and embroidered shirts are passed down to younger generations.”
Bielobrova fled in the aftermath of Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion, moving to the Netherlands, the world's flower-producing powerhouse. In comparison, Ukraine had a modest pre-war export market.
Once in the Netherlands, she worked with other florists who fled to make sure flowers were present whenever solidarity events for Ukraine were held in European capitals.
Sunflowers, grown since the 1700s in Ukraine, have become the country's national flower — a symbol of Ukraine’s defiance and resilience in the war.
Fields of the shoulder-high flowers are often seen across Ukraine and Zelenskyy's Cabinet named the flower the symbol of national Remembrance Day in 2020.
“They provide an escape from the horrors of bombings, destruction, pain, and tears,” said Bielobrova, who has returned to Ukraine from the Netherlands and lives in Kyiv.
“Emotions are easily expressed with flowers," she said. “Each flower speaks for itself, and together in a bouquet, they tell a whole story.”
Flowers, Ukrainians say, stand not only for tradition but also for hope and healing.
Dobropark, a 370-acre (150 hectare) privately run garden and recreation area west of Kyiv, was rebuilt after a Russian attack and occupation that lasted for more than a month in 2020.
“This entire area was occupied by the Russian military,” the park’s landscape designer Olha Lyhvar said.
When the Russian forces pulled out, the park's tractors and electric buggies were also gone, she said. A three-story hotel that once stood on the property was leveled to its foundations.
Today, people come to the park to "reconnect with nature,” she said, standing next to a door frame — all that remains of the bombed-out hotel.
”People come here and can feel the force of life and see that it continues despite everything," Lyhvar said. "We must live on and find for ourselves joy and beauty in what surrounds us.”
Full coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
A girl uses a Ukrainian flag to shelter from the sun in Dobro Park, Motyzhyn, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Dobro Park, a 370-acre (150 hectare) privately-run garden and recreation area west of Kyiv, was rebuilt after the Russian attack and occupation that lasted for more than a month.(AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
Olha Lyhvar landscape designer of Dobro Park. Motyzhyn, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Dobro Park, a 370-acre (150 hectare) privately-run garden and recreation area west of Kyiv, was rebuilt after the Russian attack and occupation that lasted for more than a month. "This entire area was occupied by the Russian military," the park's landscape designer Olha Lyhvar said. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
People walk by the flower-decorated remains of the entrance to Dobro Park hotel, which was burned and destroyed during the Russian occupation of Kyiv region, in Motyzhyn, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Dobro Park, a 370-acre (150 hectare) privately-run garden and recreation area west of Kyiv, was rebuilt after the Russian attack and occupation that lasted for more than a month. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
A woman swings from a heart-shaped flower installation in Dobro Park, Motyzhyn, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. They burst out of planters that line the capital's backroads and grand boulevards and are fixed to lampposts. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
A tractor decorated with flowers is seen linked with a chain to a grass-covered Russian tank, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. The tractor symbolises Ukrainian resilience, reminiscent of the early days of the full-scale invasion when ordinary people used tractors to help the military transport abandoned Russian equipment. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
A traсtor decorated with flowers and a Ukrainian flag, is seen in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. The tractor symbolises Ukrainian resilience, reminiscent of the early days of the full-scale invasion when ordinary people used tractors to help the military transport abandoned Russian equipment. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
Tulips are placed among Ukrainian flags in memory of fallen fighters, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. They burst out of planters that line the capital's backroads and grand boulevards and are fixed to lampposts. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
Olha Semynog stands by her flower stall in an underpass in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. They burst out of planters that line the capital's backroads and grand boulevards and are fixed to lampposts. Semynog sells bunches of flowers for $2.50 all the way up to giant bouquets for $75. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
A boy walks through the lavender field in Dobro Park, Motyzhyn, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Dobro Park, a 370-acre (150 hectare) privately-run garden and recreation area west of Kyiv, was rebuilt after the Russian attack and occupation that lasted for more than a month.(AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
A woman buys bouquets of flowers at a street flower stall in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. They burst out of planters that line the capital's backroads and grand boulevards and are fixed to lampposts. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
A woman takes photos in the lavender field in Dobro Park, Motyzhyn, Kyiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Dobro Park, a 370-acre (150 hectare) privately-run garden and recreation area west of Kyiv, was rebuilt after the Russian attack and occupation that lasted for more than a month.(AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
Various flowers are seen in front of a field of flags in memory of fallen fighters, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 25, 2024. Despite hardships brought by war flowers fill Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. They burst out of planters that line the capital's backroads and grand boulevards and are fixed to lampposts. (AP Photo/Anton Shtuka)
