DWTS pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy arrives back in LA to emotional welcome from wife Peta Murgatroyd

Dancing With The Stars pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy has arrived home in Los Angeles after a ‘traumatic’ escape from war-torn Ukraine.

The 42-year-old touched down at LAX on Wednesday afternoon where he was greeted by his relieved wife Peta Murgatroyd and members of the media.

The couple shared an emotional hug as Maks ended a harrowing journey that took him from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, to Warsaw in Poland and then on to America.

The dancer and choreographer, who was born in Ukraine, had been in the city filming a TV show when Russia launched its invasion.

He reached Warsaw, the capital of Poland, on Tuesday after he was arrested in Kyiv and then took a ‘traumatizing’ train ride full of women and children heading to the Polish border.

He had shared via social media early Wednesday morning that he had managed to get a seat on a plane to Los Angeles.

Maks and fellow DWTS pro Peta, 35, married in 2017 and share son Shai, five.

Maks and his brother Val emigrated to New York with their parents in 1994 and went on to become US citizens.

He was able to leave Ukraine thanks to his US passport as all Ukrainian men of fighting age – between 18-60 – have been prohibited from leaving the country and must remain to fight the Russian invaders.

He admitted it was a difficult choice, explaining via social media: ‘I’m having very mixed emotions.

‘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.’

In his Instagram video from the airport in Warsaw, Maks shared: ‘Hey I’m ready to go, boarding this plane.’

He went on: ‘I also found a patch of gray hairs that just came up that was definitely not there. That’s a little bit of a joke. But not a joke…. this last night was insane.’

He went on to talk about the non-stop bombing throughout the country and casualties among civilians.

Maksim slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin and said the Russian people are ‘confused’ and ‘not sure.’

‘[Putin] doesn’t represent all the Russians,’ he said. ‘Just want that to be very clear. I don’t want there to be hate. I don’t want there to be disgust with them as a nation. They’re our brothers and sisters. My mom’s brother… his family lives in Russia.

‘My grandpa lives in Russia. On the Russia territory. They moved when they had no job, no work, no opportunity to another nearby village basically they are also scraping by.’

He added: ‘I’m mostly angry. I’m also f****ng angry and p****d…. ‘I came from that place. USSR didn’t represent me and I think [Putin] doesn’t represent the good ones. We just got to help them and open their eyes. So keep talking, keep using your voice and so will I. I’m getting on a plane. Talk to you from LA,’ closing out the video.

 

 

His exit from Poland comes hours after he sat down in his Warsaw hotel room and decompressed following his dramatic ordeal fleeing Ukraine.

Maksim said he ‘lived through some s**t that I’m going to need a lot of therapy for’ on an Instagram Live.

Maksim has been documenting his journey fleeing his native country after the Russian invasion; The father of one finally arrived to Warsaw, Poland on Tuesday after 31 hours of no sleep.

He shared a detailed account of his trek to Warsaw, Poland, revealing he was starting his train journey on Monday after he got arrested in Kyiv.

Chmerkovskiy, who has been in Kyiv working as a judge on the Ukrainian version of World of Dance, had planned on staying in his native land when the fighting first broke out, however, after he got a ‘reality check’ by being arrested  Monday, he decided to flee.

Maks called his train ride ‘claustrophobic’ and ‘traumatizing,’ filled with women and children fleeing the war torn country.

‘I made it on the train. We’re heading to Warsaw (hopefully). Train to Lviv was not an option,’ the choreographer penned. ‘The situation at the train station is insane. AT first it feels manageable, but it get A LOT worse when it comes time to actually board the train.’

‘Long story but all I can say now is that I’m a big man with nothing but a backpack it’s TRAUMATIZING,’ he continued. ‘Currently I’m in a cabin with 4 adults and 7 kids (ages 2-11) which is usually only occupied by maximum of 3 people.’

Maksim revealed that the train car that he was traveling on was outfitted for roughly 30 riders but refugees were told they needed to fit 135 people inside.

‘Walkways are packed. People everywhere. It’s sweaty and claustrophobic,’ he said. Photos from a train station in illustrate the reality star’s situation. Thousands of people were seen bundled up in freezing temperatures standing practically on top of one another as they attempted to get a train out of the country.

What finally broke me is when I was watching an eight-ish year old boy, hysterically crying and not wanting to let go of his father,’ he wrote in a heartbreaking post on Instagram. ‘Verbatim: “if you stay I want to stay too because if they kill you I won’t be able to help”.’

His wife, Peta, shared his post on her social media feed saying she was ‘so f**king proud’ of her husband for helping out the refugee children.

Maks’ decision to finally leave Kyiv came after he was arrested while in the capital city amid the Russian military assault.

‘The streets are crazy,’ he said. ‘At one point I got arrested but again all good, promise. 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.’

‘I’m going to try and make my way out. I’m going to start making my way towards the border. I have options.’ Adding: ‘Just a little nervous but I think it’s going to be alright. I know it’s going to be okay.

Maksim posted graphic videos to his stories and grid throughout Ukraine, as the star says he’s tried and stressed out after seeing innocent people being killed.

He said on Sunday: ‘I’m in a very safe place but this is nuts and I think everybody is going through a lot of emotions and i think it’s time I expose mine in a more personal manner.

‘This is a war. This is a crazy situation. It’s insane and I’m losing my final little things. This is not a cry for help. I’m a big boy. I can handle myself.. but I’m starting to not be able to just sort of keep my head.’

‘The reality is, I just want to go home. I’m just hoping for a safe ending to it all.’

His wife Peta took to Instagram on Sunday with an emotional message in which she shared that an empathetic group of strangers had made a kind gesture to her amid the absence of Maksim.

‘Although I’m going through hell right now and I want it all to end…[there] is light that shines through the darkness,’ said Murgatroyd, who is mother to five-year-old son Shai with Chmerkovskiy, who she wed in July of 2017.

Murgatroyd, an alum of Dancing With the Stars, remains at the family’s home in California amid the uncertain time. She said that strangers baked her cookies ‘and proudly brought them to [her] door.

‘They stood there with smiles so wide. Let me repeat … strangers, whom I don’t talk to thought that they should get in their kitchen and bake me cookies,’ she said. ‘They also took it upon themselves to google if I was allergic to anything, just to make sure they weren’t hurting me.’

Chmerkovskiy has also provided frequent social media updates amid the conflict, as he said Thursday he had not attempted to leave the country due to safety concerns around the border of Poland. The professional dancer said he felt his odds for departure from the Ukraine were helped in having an American passport.

Chmerkovskiy added that the conflict had taken an emotional toll on him, as he said he ‘will never be the same’ in the wake of the invasion.

‘This is stressful and I’m getting old feelings back, like I’ve done this before,’ he said Thursday. ‘This does feel like the way it was when and why we left in the 90s. Like my old PTSD I’ve finally fixed is coming back.’

On Sunday, Chmerkovskiy took to Instagram Stories with a number of messages, urging people in the dance community in European countries to help take care of refugees if they were able to. He shared a number of links to resources to help people exit safely amid the ongoing military conflict.

Chmerkovskiy also wrote, ‘Russia needs a revolution!!! Russian people are being lied to!!! Russians! Wake up! It will take you generations to get over this and generations of people around the world will never forgive you!!!’

On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to put nuclear weapons on enhanced alert for ‘special regime of combat duty’ amid heightened tensions with Europe and the United States following the invasion.

Putin cited aggression toward Russia from NATO as well as economic sanctions and moves shutting down Russian banking institutions using the banking system SWIFT.