Maksim Chmerkovskiy continues to share updates from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian-born dancer pro dancer, who is in Kyiv amid Russia’s invasion of the country, said he is “safe right now” and doesn’t plan to flee the country. However, the situation is “pretty dire.”
“I’m safe,” the Dancing With the Stars talent, 42, said Friday on Instagram. “We haven’t been told to move, and I’m just following instructions. That’s all I can say. But the reality is that I’m also talking to my friends that are here, the Ukrainians, and the situation is pretty dire.”
Chmerkovskiy, who immigrated from Ukraine to the United States in the 1990s, said that the Ukrainian people are “being mobilized. The whole country has been called to go to war. Men, women, boys — people that I was judging some days ago in dance competitions” are now “getting guns and getting deployed to defend the country.”
Chmerkovskiy, who was in his homeland working on the reality competition series World of Dance Ukraine, said he’s not “not reporting the news” nor is he speaking for everyone in Ukraine, but people he has spoken to are “aggressively charged” and “if it’s not resolved in a peaceful manner in some way or form in the next day or so, or two, I think it’s gonna take a turn for very, very much more aggressive actions and a lot more casualties.”
Chmerkovskiy has a U.S. passport and can return to the U.S., where he lives with his pro-dancer wife Peta Murgatroyd and their 5-year-old son. However, he talked about how many Ukrainians, especially the elderly and young children, can’t “just get up and run,” and called COVID an additional hurdle in all this. “It’s not like you can call an Uber.”
His post was captioned, “Please speak and post about all of this, so talking resumes and shooting stops!”
Chmerkovskiy also made a second post making it clear he’s “safe right now” and isn’t “currently trying to leave” Ukraine.
“I’m staying here,” he said. “I’m gonna do my best to make sure I’m as safe as possible. I’m not moving towards the border currently.”
Chmerkovskiy said he’s been told it’s “not safe” to do so anyway. Some friends who are on the way to the Polish border said it was “quite dangerous” with “senseless activity outside of the war stuff.”
Chmerkovskiy has shared multiple updates as this horror has played out. He previously shared, “WAR is NEVER an answer” and said he will “never be the same. 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.”
He also said his hotel has a bomb shelter, and he’s ready to leave if needed.
Meanwhile, Murgatroyd, also of Dancing With the Stars fame, asked her followers to “please pray for my husband Maks. I don’t usually ask these things … however today is extremely hard and the next few will be even harder.”
He replied to her post with a heart and crying emojis.
Russia began the invasion of Ukraine this week and has been moving its military forces closer to Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at least 137 Ukrainians were killed and hundreds wounded.
