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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Jamie Roberts

DWTS pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy in emotional reunion with wife after fleeing Ukraine

Dancing With The Stars pro dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy has safely escaped war-torn Ukraine and reunited with his wife Peta Murgatroyd in the United States.

The star, 42, was videoed emotionally embracing his partner, 35, after managing to flee his home country as Russia continued to invade.

The couple tightly hugged on his arrival at Los Angeles airport with Maksim clearly shaken by the event he had witnessed over the past week.

Maksim confessed he was told to get a gun while he was in Ukraine and ordered to watch YouTube videos on how to operate the deadly weapon.

Days earlier, while still in Kyiv, Maksim uploaded a video of himself talking about the war to Instagram, telling his 1.1 million followers "war is NEVER an answer".

Maksim Chmerkovskiy lands at LAX and is met by wife Peta Murgatroyd (SplashNews.com)
Maksim Chmerkovskiy with wife Peta Murgatroyd (SplashNews.com)

He revealed he would "never be the same" and wrote: "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. Like my old PTSD I’ve finally fixed is coming back. I literally only just forgot about those “always on the edge” feelings and actually started worrying about things like bbq grills.

"I’m crying as I’m typing this because all man deserves to worry about “bbq grills” and not f***ing war."

He followed up the post once he'd arrived in Warsaw saying he was "not ok".

He continued: "I’m tired. I’m stressed. I needed to rant.

"Thank you and please make some noice about this so the whole world starts screaming."

Following his safe return to the US, Maksim once again took to Instagram on Wednesday night to show the disturbing scenes of Zhytomyr, where he called a "100% civilian area", up in flames as members of the public frantically search through flaming rubble in search for loved ones.

Maksim lived in Ukraine until he was 14 and had recently returned to Kyiv to work on a dance competition show.

Maksim has posted several clips of the tragic scenes in Ukraine (mirror.co.uk)
Ukrainian DWTS pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy had been updating fans on his safety (mirror.co.uk)

He has regularly updated his social media followers since the war broke out in a bid to get more information out in the public eye.

As Russian forces surrounded Kyiv, he had found himself spending time in a bomb shelter before he was able to board a train bound for Poland.

The dancer described the tragic scenes in which he watched a small boy need to say goodbye to his dad.

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