Russia invasion: DWTS’s Maks Chmerkovskiy says he’s ‘not ok’ after leaving Ukraine

‘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,’ dancer says

Dancing with the Stars’s Maks Chmerkovskiy has shared his experience of leaving Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion of the country.

The 42-year-old Ukrainian dancer has been sharing updates from Kyiv ever since Vladimir Putin launched attacks on its neighbouring country.

Last week, Chmerkovskiy shared a video where he can be seen standing on a balcony, as military sirens from the streets can be heard in the background.

The following day, he posted another video from a bomb shelter in Kyiv, telling followers: “Hey everybody, I’m in the bomb shelter, aka a parking lot.”

On Tuesday (1 March), Chmerkovskiy informed his fans that he’s finally made out of Ukraine and reached Poland.

The dancer’s journey consisted of a 23-hour train ride from Kyiv to Poland’s capital, Warsaw.

In a new video posted on Wednesday (2 March), Chmerkovskiy described his entire experience, and how he’s not feeling ‘ok’.

“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,” he said in the video. “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,” he said.

The dancer also admitted that he feels “guilty” after leaving his war-ridden country.

In the past week, Chmerkovskiy’s wife Peta Murgatroyd also asked fans to “pray” for his safe return from Ukraine.

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“Please pray for my husband Maks. I don’t usually ask these things from my social media network, however, today is extremely hard and the next few days will be even harder,” she wrote in a social media post.

Follow the latest updates about the Russian invasion of Ukraine in our live blog here.