Maks Chmerkovskiy had a touching reunion with his wife Peta Murgatroyd at LAX, after fleeing from his native Ukraine a week into the Russian invasion.
The “Dancing with the Stars” pro, 42, was spotted in an emotional embrace with his wife, when he arrived back in the US on Wednesday.
It was an emotional reunion for Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd as he arrived home safely from Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Pxwa6tzfFh
— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) March 3, 2022
Chmerkovskiy had been documenting the crisis on social media from Kyiv, where he had been filming World of Dance. As Russian troops advanced on the capital city, he began an arduous journey to escape the country, despite male citizens between 18-60 being prohibited from leaving.
On Monday, the DWTS star reported that he had been arrested trying to flee. “That was probably the least traumatizing moment in this whole thing as far as Ukraine is concerned, but for me, it was just a reality check,” he reported.
The next day, he explained that he took a 23-hour ride on a train to Warsaw, Poland, that was so packed with women and children, it was difficult to breathe. “I felt wrong leaving,” Chmerkovskiy remarked. “I still feel guilty being on that train.”
“I’m having a horrible time. I’m having very mixed emotions,” he said of the ordeal. “I have my friends there, my friends in [the] frontline. … I can’t hear from some of the people. I can’t get in touch with them. I don’t know if they’re dead.”
The dancer arrived in Warsaw on Tuesday, and headed to his home in Los Angeles on a Finnair flight. “I just don’t want to resent peace somewhere else because of what I just saw, that’s the reality,” he said upon landing. “I don’t know really what to say right this second.”
Chmerkovskiy told reporters outside of the airport that the reason Ukraine was still standing was because of the fight within the country’s citizens and the help of the rest of the world.
“If we don’t get involved, this thing is going to go everywhere else. I think that in 2022, following this action, we have to completely rethink the way we do things as a planet. There can never again be one person who can do something like this ever again. We have to have checks and balances globally, not just one country at a time,” he concluded.
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Thank God he’s out. I will pray for the people he had to leave behind. Putin should be put down. He is evil!!!!!!!!!