Ukrainians in Seattle mark 35 years of freedom and fight to preserve it

Joseph O’Sullivan, The Seattle Times on Aug 30, 2026

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Passersby at Seattle Center on Saturday saw the typical Ukrainian independence day festivities, from embroidered traditional clothing to varenyky dumplings, Ukrainian candies and a lineup of contemporary musicians and folk performances.

Those witnessing Ukraine's 35th annual celebration of freedom after the fall of the Soviet Union also might have seen Anton Yefremov. The 30-year-old from Kenmore stood Saturday outside a booth collecting donations to buy a vehicle for the 61st Mechanized Brigade, defending against the Russian invasion.

“We are the backbone the Ukrainian defenders can rely on,” said Yefremov, president of the Puget Sound-based nonprofit Ukraine Defense Support.

The group has raised $4.7 million since its start in 2022, after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to Yefremov. It even bought a vehicle for the brigade recently — but that was destroyed within weeks of reaching the front lines.

“With everything changing, political events around the world, Ukraine is dropping from the headlines,” Yefremov said. “We don’t want to over-shout about it, but … we’re still seeking support.”

Subtle signs from the war could be seen and heard all around Saturday's festivities, hosted by the Ukrainian Association of Washington State. The event is free and open to the public, with the group saying up to 15,000 attendees were expected at the daylong event.

The booth for Ukraine Defense Support featured a Ukrainian flag signed by soldiers with thank-you notes. T-shirts at vendor booths were emblazoned with the Ukrainian coat of arms, a trident symbol often sported by the armed forces. And as they worked booths and browsed, people described a connection to the fighting.

"I have family in Ukraine, by the war," said Alla Svystun as she set out embroidered clothes she had made for a display. Svystun said she was born in Kramatorsk, in Donetsk, not far from the fighting, and has family still living there.

The local celebration has been going since 1971, from even before Ukraine regained its independence as the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, said Vladyslav Bobrovnyk, vice president of the association.

Washington has more than 100,000 Ukrainian immigrants, said Bobrovnyk, with many more second- and third-generation descendants living here, as well.

It's a longstanding community in Washington, he added, noting that Ukrainian migrants came to Washington after Ukraine's original independence from Russia in 1918. But Russia's illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, combined with the broader invasion of Ukraine in 2022, changed things, he said.

“I think before it was much more focused on just Ukrainians that are trying to reconnect with the rest of the community, and now we’re really trying to use it as well as an educational event," Bobrovnyk said. "And explain to Americans here in Washington what Ukraine is, what our community is. We’re not just some upstart community that just moved here a few years ago."

American foreign policy toward Ukraine has wavered in recent years. In the run-up to the 2022 invasion, then-President Joe Biden worked to build a coalition of nations contributing to Ukraine's defense and prioritized the donation of American military equipment.

Since his reelection in 2024, President Donald Trump has blown hot and cold on his support for Ukraine, after promising during his election campaign that he could end the fighting in 24 hours, which did not happen.

At rallies marking the anniversary of the armed conflict, hundreds of people have flooded Seattle streets waving Ukrainian flags and calling for peace.

Because of the war, Katerina Sedova, foreign policy adviser for the association, said Ukrainians in Washington "live in the world of bifurcation every day."

Sedova said the association is grateful to the United States for its help, "but we also need their voices in Congress, at the White House, to continue supporting Ukraine," she said. "To push for security assistance, so that Ukraine is able to shoot down ballistic missiles over its cities, so that it doesn’t freeze in the cold winter because the Russians are trying to bring the electrical infrastructure down."

Ukrainians in Washington "carry with them the pain of the war, the pain of their loved ones, family and friends, fighting on the front line," she said. "Standing guard."

After she browsed through a rack of embroidered dresses by the vendor booths, Larysa Gavrilenko explained you can sometimes tell where someone is from in Ukraine by the embroidery.

Gavrilenko said she grew up near Odesa and came to America over 20 years ago. The war is on the minds of her and her family daily: "We pray every day.

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