"It's a park, not a sandbox for kids": Victory Park in Ulan-Ude was covered with sand... 

“Can you imagine, the whole area is covered in sand!” a local resident expressed outrage on social media. "And the trees were planted in the south of the park, right in the sand... This place used to be just ordinary soil. Did they really bring in this sand on purpose? <…> What if the wind picks up? Will this sand blow through the center? This is a park, not a children's sandbox."

Reconstruction of Victory Memorial Park began in March 2024. The work was supposed to be completed by August 1, but the deadline was missed. The contractor solved this problem simply by blurring the completion date on the site's passport.

The park's reconstruction was carried out by an entrepreneur Boris Karmyshov, found The Siberian Express. The contract was initially awarded for 79,2 million rubles. But in August, its price jumped to 88 million, and the work deadline was pushed back to October 6.

"They've paved everything over with concrete. What kind of stone park is this?" "They apparently don't know anything about landscape design here, or are they going to allocate special funds for creating a lawn?" "What could possibly grow out of this parody of trees and shrubs? It's truly shameful and disgraceful. I've never seen anything like it in any other city," local residents comment on the "greening" on social media.

Next year we'll celebrate the 80th anniversary of Victory Day. I wonder if they'll have time to replace the sand with lawns in Ulan-Ude, or if they'll have to celebrate in a big sandbox?