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From Silos to Sunflowers
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Visitors to the farmland around Pervomaysk in Ukraine today would see fields of sunflowers - an important cash crop in this rich agricultural land. But just five years ago vegetation co-existed with missile silos, holding more than 700 nuclear warheads aimed at the United States and Europe.
The transformation of this land is more than a story of treaties and diplomacy. It is a story of former enemies becoming colleagues and working together for a safer world.
The story begins in 1991 with the breakup of the Soviet Union. As a legacy from the Soviet war machine, four new nations inherited nuclear weapons. Strategically located, Ukraine's territory held the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world; with 2,000 nuclear warheads, this arsenal outranked those of China, France or the United Kingdom.
The United States knew that Ukraine needed financial and technical help to dismantle this lethal legacy. Politically they knew that any efforts had to involve the Russians as well. In January 1994 the three nations signed a Trilateral Agreement, confirming Ukraine's commitment to return the nuclear warheads to Russia in exchange for power reactor fuel from Russia and security guarantees from the United States. Senators Richard Lugar and Sam Nunn succeeded in getting the Congress to approve legislation to give Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Russia support for reducing the nuclear and other dangerous weapons on their territories. This support extended beyond removing the missiles and dismantling the silos. The United States also helped build housing for the military personnel and their families who no longer had to guard and launch these missiles.
Then U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry was directly involved in the transformation of the silos around Pervomaysk over a period of three years. In 1994 he visited the operating silos and saw the map on the wall that had a glowing bulb for every U.S. and European city targeted by a live warhead. A year later he came back to monitor progress and saw the silo being dismantled and an Orthodox priest sprinkling holy water on a new nearby factory.
The following winter, Dr. Perry returned. Dr. Perry, accompanied by Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev and Ukraine Defense Minister Valeriy Shmarov, simultaneously turned the keys that only two years earlier would have launched nuclear missiles at the United States. This time the keys ignited the explosives that blew up the empty silo.
When Dr. Perry next visited the site in June, the snow and ice of winter had given way to summer. The concrete and barbed wire of the military enclave were also gone and in its place were furrowed fields. The three men — once sworn enemies — together dug into the fertile earth and planted sunflowers.
