Maksim Chmerkovskiy Emotionally Reunites With Wife Peta Murgatroyd, Talks Return from Ukraine (Exclusive)

etonline.com:

Maksim Chmerkovskiy is back on U.S. soil. After fleeing Ukraine following Russia's invasion, the 42-year-old pro dancer made it back to Los Angeles, where he was met by his wife, Peta Murgatroyd, in an emotional reunion.The couple shared a long embrace in the terminal of LAX, before walking out together.ET's Kevin Frazier spoke with Chmerkovskiy in the airport, and the dancer was overcome with emotion, admitting, «I just don't want to resent peace somewhere else because of what I just saw, that's the reality.

I don't know really what to say right this second.»Chmerkovskiy, who grew up in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union and was in town to serve as a judge on the country's upcoming season of , began documenting his experience last month.«I want to go back home and I realize that I have the way to, I realize that I have a different passport and my family is far away,» he said, alluding to his wife and child, who were both in the U.S. «I am not at this point someone who is pleading for someone else's safety from a far distance, from a safe distance.

I'm somebody who's about to go into a bomb shelter because s**t's going down.»«I will never be the same,» he added. «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.»In his next update, Chmerkovskiy said he was in «the safest place I can find,» but was «just ready to go home.»He started trying to make his way home shortly thereafter, after he was arrested in Kyiv, which he called «the least traumatizing moment in this whole thing.»Chmerkovskiy made it on a train heading to Warsaw, Poland, next, noting, «I’m a big man.