As tensions between Russia and Ukraine have escalated to all-out attacks, a number of Ukraine’s most famous celebrity exports have returned home to provide support for the country’s bid to remain free of Russian rule.
Maksim “Maks” Chmerkovskiy, a 17-season veteran of the American edition of "Dancing With the Stars," revealed in an Instagram post Friday that he, too, has returned to Ukraine.
Emergency sirens can be heard in the background of Chmerkovskiy’s first video, which cuts off midway through his statement as those sirens get louder. He then continues making his statement in a second video.
“There’s ALWAYS another way! WAR is NEVER an answer!” Chmerkovskiy posted alongside the first of a series of videos that feature him emotionally voicing his thoughts on the conflict and pleading with Russian citizens to rise up and protest the actions by their president Vladimir Putin.
Another later pair of videos show Chmerkovskiy sheltered in an undisclosed location and again advocating for the Ukrainians who have elderly or sick relatives and young children who can’t simply “call an Uber” and leave the city as he pleads for Russia to cease fire on his native country.
Chmerkovskiy’s family left Ukraine and immigrated to Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1994 when he was 14 years old, and in the written caption to his video post, he compares the current conditions in Kyiv to those same conditions that caused his family to flee 28 years ago.
He also reveals that he suffered PTSD when his life was traumatically uprooted as a teenager, and that he can feel it returning as the attacks draw nearer and the situation worsens.
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