Maksim Chmerkovskiy Arrives Safely in L.A. After Leaving Ukraine

Maksim Chmerkovskiy has made it back to the U.S. and has been reunited with his family after fleeing Ukraine earlier this week amid the country’s ongoing conflict with Russia.

Speaking to reporters, including Entertainment Tonight, outside the Los Angeles International Airport where he had an emotional reunion with his wife Peta Murgatroyd, Chmerkovskiy thanked Ukraine’s neighboring countries, especially Poland, for accepting refugees and assisting them with evacuation. He also expressed that an international response would be necessary to stop things like this from happening.

It was an emotional reunion for Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd as he arrived home safely from Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Pxwa6tzfFh

— Entertainment Tonight (@etnow) March 3, 2022

“If we don’t get involved, this thing is going to go everywhere else,” he said. “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.”

The World of Dance judge, who had returned to the country he was born in for its upcoming season of the reality show, shared that the conflict was something that was expected, but that “the reason why Ukraine is standing right now is because of the Ukrainian people. And the fact that the entire world is helping.”

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Chmerkovskiy has spent the last week documenting his time in Ukraine after Russia invaded on Feb. 24, explaining his initial decision to stay in an Instagram video and ultimately why he chose to flee to Poland and get back to his family in the U.S.

“I’m going to try and make my way out,” he said in an Instagram Story posted Monday. “I’m going to start making my way towards the border. I have options. Just a little nervous but I think it’s going to be alright. I know it’s going to be okay.”

He then gave regular updates on his 31-hour effort to get to Ukraine’s capital Kyiv before taking a 90-minute train, packed with around 130 other people, across the Poland border.

“I’m in a cabin with [four’ adults and [seven] kids (ages 2-11), which usually is only occupied by [a] maximum of 3 people,” he wrote. “There’s usually up to 30 people in this particular wagon. We were told we have to fit 135. Walkways are packed. People everywhere.”

In a video posted on Feb. 24, Chmerkovskiy explained that he hadn’t then left yet because “everybody was hoping that the finality of this situation would be averted, that there wasn’t going to be these kind of aggressive measures [from Russia].”

Chmerkovskiy appeared for 17 seasons on the ABC reality dancing competition, winning season 18 with ice dancer Meryl Davis, with his last appearance teaming him with Vanessa Lachey on 2017’s season 25.