Where Ukraine’s sunflowers once sprouted, fears now grow

By ROBERT BURNS
AP National Security Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — On a warm spring day in Ukraine 26 years ago, three men smiled for cameras as they planted symbolic sunflower seedlings in freshly tilled earth where Soviet nuclear missiles had once stood ready. That placid scene was, briefly, a launchpad for hope that the demise of the Soviet Union would bury the threat of great power war and mark the start of lasting peace in an undivided Europe. Ukraine had agreed to give up the nuclear weapons it inherited with the breakup of the Soviet empire in exchange for security guarantees that, a generation later, Russia stands accused by the West of violating by targeting Ukraine with military force.