Sunflowers of Ukraine Defiance Greet Russians at Embassy

WASHINGTON (05-11) – Ukraine’s national flower, the sunflower—soniashnyk—has become an internationally recognized sign of national identity, solidarity and resilience in Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s brutal invasion and war. Early in the war, a powerful video by BBC showed a woman accosting a Russian soldier on the street while presenting him with seeds telling him “Put the sunflower seeds in your pocket please. You will lie down here with the seeds” in effect telling him they will grow where he dies.

Since the beginning of the war in 2022 residents along the entire block fronting the Russian Embassy on Wisconsin Avenue NW have decorated their homes and front lawns in an ever-changing display of symbols, flags, painted fences, signs, drawings, flowers and various other visuals as a reminder of their solidarity and support of Ukraine.

On this Mother’s Day evening, for the fourth year the US Ukrainian Activists (USUA) and other community members planted a sunflower garden along the sidewalk in what one speaker said was “to remind the Russian Federation that Ukrainians will fight for its freedom and independence until every inch of its territory is liberated.”

The planting activity saw families with small children, activists, neighbors, and some passersby all busy planting a large area of the lot for the sunflowers to grow.

Benjamin Wittes, who first came up with the idea of creating the garden, said that he never would have imagined that the war would have gone on so long, while he and the others hope that there will not be the need for a garden next year. The idea for the garden came to him suddenly after he did a projection of the Ukraine flag on the Russian Embassy building that was projecting the tricolors of the Russian flag. That initiated a projection war when the Russians then tried to wipe out the Ukraine flag projection with a white light.

Afterward, when asked what he was going to do next, he said he would plant a sunflower garden. After tweeting out his idea, Ukraine ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova responded by saying that she would love to plant some sunflowers as well. Thus, the protest garden known as the Polonne Sunflower Garden was born. The garden takes its name after a small town in western Ukraine where one of the garden’s volunteers was a teacher while serving in the Peace Corps.

In previous years the sunflowers were planted in the public grassy strip between the sidewalk and the street curb as the owners of the adjacent empty lot would not allow its use for the garden. One result of which was that it being in a public space, the sunflowers were vandalized repeatedly causing activists to repair and replant them often and frequently. This year, however, the lot’s new owner has allowed its use on the private lot and are working with the group to install a 24-hour video surveillance system so that trespassers who vandalize the garden can be recorded and prosecuted.

The sunflower garden’s position facing what activists call the “war crimes embassy of the Russian Federation, located at Boris Nemtsov Plaza,” are a constant visual reminder of support for Ukraine and assures that anyone entering or leaving the compound will be confronted by their message of solidarity and resistance, symbolizing the hope for a peaceful, prosperous, free, democratic and independent Ukraine.

Wittes noted that the Russian Embassy is furious with the garden’s existence.

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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