"Dancing with the Stars" alum Maksim Chmerkovskiy reunited with his wife in the U.S. after he posted an update to Instagram that he was safely en route to Los Angeles after his escape from Ukraine and Russia's invasion.
"Entertainment Tonight" and E! News shared images of Chmerkovskiy and his wife, Peta Murgatroyd, a fellow dancer, embracing at the airport Wednesday.
“I just don’t want to resent peace somewhere else because of what I just saw. That’s the reality,” Chmerkovskiy told “Entertainment Tonight.” “I don’t know really what to say right this second.”
Representatives for Chmerkovskiy and Murgatroyd did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Chmerkovskiy has been documenting his experience in Kyiv to his 1.1 million Instagram followers since Feb. 24 — the day Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Chmerkovskiy told his followers in a video: “I’m ready to go. I’m ready to board this plane . ... Getting in a plane. Talk to you from L.A."
For the first several days of Russia's invasion, Chmerkovskiy shared that he was stuck in the capital. But he told his followers on Instagram on Monday that he had made his way onto a train headed to the capital of Poland.
“We’re heading to Warsaw, hopefully,” he wrote. “Train to Lviv was not an option. The situation at the train station is insane. At first it feels manageable but it gets 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 and it’s traumatizing.”
On Tuesday, after about a daylong trip on the train, Chmerkovskiy shared an Instagram video update saying he had arrived in Poland, captioned: "I'm in Warsaw. I'm in hotel. I'm not ok."
"I won't be able to express myself. I'm already tearing up and choking," he said in the video. "I'm scared, I'm confused, I'm terrified, and I've just lived through some [things] that I'm going to need a lot of therapy for."
In the U.S., Murgatroyd was also sharing updates.
"I rotated candles and never let them blow out for those 5 days. 24/7," she wrote in a recent Instagram post. "@maksimc I cannot wait to be with you again."
