The country's main Christmas tree, which is currently being mounted on Sofia Square, has become the most popular topic of discussion on social networks. Because of its baldness, it has even been called a symbol of corruption and sloppiness. How did the fluffy tree get so "trimmed" and who is to blame?
The main New Year's tree, which was transported to Kyiv for five days, was so damaged during transportation that it was simply unrecognisable after installation. The fluffy beauty fir tree from Bogorodchansky Special Agroforestry, which was cut by 12 people, looked thinner after installation. "I'm going to take a sedative", "Only communal workers could disfigure the Carpathian Beauty in such a way...", "Yolka is not the same nowadays...". - users wrote, drawing analogies with 2013, when there was also a lot of discussion around the New Year's symbol.
Oleg Oleinik, director of the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblagroles, recognised the tree. "It is ours, you can recognise it by its top," he told Vesti. - If we had known that it would be turned into such a thing, we would not have sent it at all. We tried so hard not to spoil it. Twelve people worked for 24 hours in the cold. We carefully cut it down with a crane and put it on a trailer, which, to put it mildly, was not quite suitable: its length was 28 metres, while the Christmas tree's length was 30 metres. The transport company wanted to make an advertisement for itself on this transport, but in the end it got an anti-advertisement".
According to him, the problems with the Christmas tree in transportation were also due to the fact that the company chose the wrong route. "They went through Stryi, while they should have gone through Halych, where there are fewer bridges," Oliynyk said.
In Kiev, it was decided, he noted, that the Christmas tree would have to be transported by a KrAZ, while in previous years it was transported by a more suitable Volvo. "And in general, it was more correct to transport it by air by helicopter. The costs would have been lower," Oleynik said.
We lost 80 branches
As "Vesti" reported, the tree's adventures began in the Carpathians, where there was a snowfall that caused the car to have an accident. And already before the capital, as told "Vesti" the organiser of New Year's holidays Igor Dobrutsky, the car could not pass without losses under the bridge, the height of which is 6.5 meters, and fir trees - 8 m. "Near Ivano-Frankivsk auto got into an accident, it was hit by a lorry, which sheared off 18 main branches and about 70 small branches on the fir tree. And in total there are 360 branches on the tree. But the three sides are very nice. In the photo being discussed, the branches are still flattened as they are tied before transport. But we will fix that. Once the structure is secured along the length of the trunk, we'll place iron fasteners for the branches and hitch them up. A few more days and you won't recognise it," says Dobrutsky.
The tree cracked
Dobrutskyy assures: the tree's adventures cost taxpayers nothing - no funds were allocated for it from the budget. "We as organisers paid for the tree 21 thousand UAH, and the transportation was at the expense of the carrier", - he pointed out. In the Commission on culture of the Kyiv city Council "Vesti" confirmed to "Vesti" that the costs of the tree and its transport in the budget were not provided. "With Dobrutsky there is an agreement that he delivers the tree for his own money, and in exchange receives advertising rights", - told us the Secretary of the Commission Alexander Pozhyvanov.
Curiously, the New Year tree was damaged not only in Kiev. In Strasbourg, the first fir tree, for which the local mayor's office paid €50,000, cracked. For safety reasons, it was decided to abandon it. And the cost of a new tree again totalled €50 thousand.
Source: www.rup.com.ua
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