Maks Chmerkovskiy Harbors Guilt Over His Escape From Ukraine

Maks Chmerkovskiy from Instagram

Former Dancing With The Stars pro Maks Chmerkovskiy was in Ukraine on a work trip when Russia invaded. For several days after, his fans, friends, and family watched and waited as he tried to escape.

The Ukrainian-American dancer did eventually make it back to Los Angeles safely. He documented his escape on his Instagram channel. But now that he’s home with his wife and son, Maks admits that he harbors a lot of guilt over his escape.

Keep reading to see what he had to say.

Maks Chmerkovskiy struggles with what he saw on his escape from Ukraine

After returning to the United States, Good Morning America had the chance to catch up with Maks. He’s very thankful to be home, but he can’t help but feel guilty about having the chance to escape.

“I feel guilty. … I feel bad,” the 42-year-old dancer admitted. “I feel shamed. I feel upset.”

During his escape from Ukraine, he saw many terrible things. He tried his best to spread awareness about the situation on his social media channels, but the images still haunt him.

Maks Chmerkovskiy/Instagram

“I’m still in a very much fight-or-flight. I’m a big boy, but I know for a fact that I’m going through something mentally because I get into these cry moments, emotional, I can’t control it,” Maks confessed.

After catching a train to Poland, Maks described the situation as “traumatic.”

“After we took off, I realized that all the people that didn’t get in have to now sleep right there in that train station. It’s not heated. It’s just a giant building. It’s cold,” he told GMA. “I’m dying inside because this is still, you know, very emotional stuff for me. There’s kids everywhere, babies everywhere. It’s negative temperature.”

Maks Chmerkovskiy and his family members have been trying to raise funds for the Ukrainian people. But even so, this isn’t going to erase the mental health issues Maks now struggles with.

Val Chmerkovskiy also is having trouble with the situation

Maks Chmerkovskiy isn’t the only one struggling with mental and emotional pain these days. Many DWTS fans think his brother Val is suffering too.

While Maks’ family waited for him to come home, Val posted on social media and seemed to call out his DWTS castmates over their silence on the conflict in Ukraine.

“It’s very revealing … that you aren’t Russian or Ukrainian or Belarusian. You aren’t the mighty Eastern Europeans I always were proud to be identified with because of your principles and work ethic,” Val said on Instagram. “Your toughness alongside your intellect and price. To all my Russian speaking friends that are quietly continuing to stay in your lane ignoring what’s happening, you aren’t any of the above, you are spineless little b******. And I will remind you of that next time we line up on that dance floor.”

Keep following us online for the latest on the Chmerkovskiy brothers. We’ll do our best to keep you informed.

Nikole Behrens
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