Pasha Petronov said Spokane-area Slavic organizations and county partners have coordinated housing, education and employer‑matching services for Ukrainians arriving under the Uniting for Ukraine program.

Petronov told Spokane County Commissioner Al French that local partners organized workshops at hotels, matched new arrivals with employers and arranged transportation shuttles so residents without vehicles could get to work.

“We went out to some employers and said, ‘hey, you need some talent. How do we make this work?’” Petronov said. He described work with Thrive International and a contact he named as Mark Finney to connect new arrivals to onsite orientation and employer matching. Petronov said volunteers also invited local police and fire departments to explain how emergency services work in the United States.

Petronov credited French for helping to secure funds used to help arrivals in recent years but did not provide details on the amount or source of those funds. He said the county and community partners had used funds to support “thousands of people here, that came and still are coming.”

Petronov also told the program that after the 2022 war in Ukraine “we saw about 2,000 more people actually just come to the Spokane area,” and that, he said, “in US, admitted about 270,000 refugees through the United for Ukraine program in 2022.” Those figures were reported by Petronov in the interview and were not independently verified in the program.

Petronov said additional local services included legal and business consulting provided in partnership with Gonzaga University’s law department to help newly started businesses and basic orientation on accessing emergency services and local systems. Details on the long‑term resettlement plan, ongoing funding levels and formal roles for county agencies were not specified in the interview.