Maksim Chmerkovskiy of ‘Dancing With the Stars’ posts from Ukraine
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
Maksim Chmerkovskiy shared on his verified Instagram account Thursday a video of himself in his homeland after it had been invaded by Russian forces.
The “Dancing With the Stars” professional dancer posted from Kyiv, Ukraine.
“There’s ALWAYS another way! WAR is NEVER an answer!” Chmerkovskiy wrote in the caption.
“P.S. I will never be the same,” he continued. “This is stressful and I’m getting old feelings back, like I’ve done this before. This does feel like the way it was when and why we left in the 90s.”
Chmerkovskiy told his followers that he’s “not a social media guy at times of some kind of personal difficulty and this is definitely not the time were I would normally would be posting anything on social media.”
“Everyone was hoping that the finality of this situation would be averted,” he said as sirens from emergency vehicles could be heard. “That there’s not going to be this kind of aggression…his kind of aggressive measure.”
Chmerkovskiy, whose younger brother, Valentin, is also a professional dancer, immigrated from Ukraine to the United States in the 1990s.
He also shared a video showing what appeared to be a family fleeing with their suitcases and another video of himself getting emotional about the situation in his native land.
He said he wanted to return to the US and realized that he has a way to because of his American passport.
“What I’m realizing is that my friends whose kids are here, whose moms, dads are here and elderly people who are here, they can’t just escape,” Chmerovskiy said emotionally.
A representative for Chmerkovskiy told CNN he is in the country working on the reality competition series “World of Dance UA.”
He first began performing with the hit ABC dance competition series during Season 2 in 2005. He won the competition in 2014 also served as a guest judge the following year during season 21.
Chmerovskiy married fellow “DWTS” pro, Peta Murgatroyd in 2017. The two are the parents of a 5-year-old son, Shai.
Murgatroyd and the couple’s son are not with him in Ukraine, according to Chmerovskiy’s representative.
Late on Thursday, Murgatroyd posted to her official Instagram account asking for “prayers” for her husband.
“I don’t usually ask these things from my social media network, however today is extremely hard and the next few will be even harder,” she wrote. “My pain is overwhelming and I’m struggling, but you sending your positive light and love to him would mean the world to me.”
She added that her husband is currently “safe” and she asked that people reading “pray that he comes home soon.”
“I grew to love this country the couple of times I visited and they’re in an unfathomable situation,” she added.
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CNN’s Sandra Gonzalez contributed to this report
