Maksim Chmerkovskiy has arrived back in the US after fleeing Ukraine following Russia's invasion.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy has arrived back in the US after fleeing Ukraine following Russia's invasion
The former 'Dancing With the Stars' professional was reunited with his wife Peta Murgatroyd, a fellow pro dancer, on Wednesday (02.03.22) at Los Angeles's LAX airport, and the couple shared a long embrace inside the terminal.
He told 'Entertainment Tonight': "I just don't want to resent peace somewhere else because of what I just saw, that's the reality.
"I don't know really what to say right this second."
As he made his way out of LAX, Maksim - who has five-year-old son Shai with wife Peta - addressed photographers and reporters, and he paid tribute to the Ukrainian people for keeping the country going.
He said: "The reason why Ukraine is standing right now is because of the Ukrainian people. And the fact that the entire world is helping.
"Huge shout out to Poland, huge shout out to neighbouring countries.
"The way I was treated through the whole process of leaving into Poland, I've just got to bow down to the Polish people."
Speaking about how Russian president Vladimir Putin's invasion could affect the whole world, he said: "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."
Maksim - who was born in Odesa, Ukraine, but has lived in the US for years - was in Kyiv filming 'World of Dance' when the Russian invasion began last week, but he managed to board a train and arrived in Poland on Tuesday (01.03.22) following a gruelling 23-hour journey.
The 42-year-old star admitted this week he was "confused" and "terrified" as he called for people to rally together against Putin.
In a lengthy video shared to Instagram, he said: "I'm scared, I'm confused, I'm terrified and I just lived through some s*** that I'm going to need a lot of therapy for.
"But I know this - it's us little guys against the big guy. I don't care how big [Russian President Vladimir Putin] is. I don't care how mean he is. When we're together, I can see what can happen. We can have a little guy finally win and it will be a joint effort and after that, we can figure out how to make sure that there's never again one f****** person, one man, who can do whatever he's doing."
Maksim became a US citizen in 2019, and has a US passport.