Sunflowers' connection to Ukraine

Sunflowers are the national flower of Ukraine. They have long been a major agriculture crop grown over 160 million acres, mostly to be processed for oil. Some think the Ukraine flag represents a blue sky over a field of yellow sunflowers. It became symbolic for independence when Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons at the former Soviet missile base and flowers were planted there on that occasion. The European Union usually imports over 2 million tons of Ukrainian sunflower oil a year, but that income has been lost to Ukraine as agriculture has ground to a halt since the invasion by Russia. Since sunflowers were introduced relatively late when the Orthodox Church was making rules during Lent, people could not use butter in cooking but sunflower oil was okay.