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Last week, President Joe Biden said the U.S. will  But until Congress decides to grant Ukrainians humanitarian parole status to enter the country without a visa on humanitarian grounds — used last year to resettle more than  after the Taliban reconquered Afghanistan — it may be a while before those fleeing Ukraine arrive to the country.

When they do, they are most likely to flock to Washington state, which is a growing hub for Ukrainians and Ukrainian refugees. 

Over the last 10 years, more Ukrainian refugees arrived in Washington than any other state in the U.S., according to a Seattle Times analysis of data from the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. Their arrivals particularly increased after 2014 when Congress authorized refugee admission as the conflict in Eastern Ukraine with Russian separatists escalated. 

Since then, Ukrainian refugees are the single largest refugee group in Washington state, though the total number of refugee arrivals declined in the U.S. during the Trump presidency and since the start of the pandemic.