The season 21 guest judge of 'Dancing with the Stars' says that he's 'scared, confused and terrified' following his 23-hour train ride from Kyiv to Poland's capital Warsaw amid Russia's attack.
- Mar 3, 2022
AceShowbiz - Maksim Chmerkovskiy has detailed his recent escape from Ukraine. In a new social media post, the season 21 guest judge of "Dancing with the Stars" said that he needs "a lot of therapy."
Making use of his Instagram account on Tuesday, March 2, the 42-year-old professional dancer shared a 26-minute long video, in which he opened up about his experience leaving Ukraine amid the Russian invasion and how it's impacted him mentally. "I'm scared, I'm confused, I'm terrified and I just lived through some s**t that I'm going to need a lot of therapy for," he said. "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," Maks added. "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**king person, one man, who can do whatever he's doing."
Maks made it out of Ukraine after a 23-hour train ride from Kyiv to Poland's capital, Warsaw. Recalling his hours-long trip in the clip, Maks said that the experience was "like out of a movie." He shared, "When the train car got packed and packed and it kept getting more and more packed, I was like, hold on. I'm thinking to myself there's no air. There's no way that we can travel [this way]." He went on to add that he stood up in the back of the train for hours so that those who needed a seat most could have one.
Elsewhere in the clip, Maks admitted to having "guilt" after escaping the war zone, pointing out that he had "a very f**king hard time leaving" amid the crisis. "I'm having a horrible time. I'm having very mixed emotions," he explained. "I have my friends there, my friends in [the] frontline. ... I can't hear from some of the people. I can't get in touch with them. I don't know if they're dead."
Earlier that day, Maks, who was previously trapped in Kyiv for days since Russia began its invasion, declared that he's safe and sound in Poland. Taking to Instagram Story, he simply wrote, "I'm in Poland," adding emojis of Ukraine and Poland's flags.
Hours earlier, Maks informed his online devotees that he took a train ride to cross the border. "We're heading to Warsaw (hopefully). Train to Lviv was not an option," he penned. "The situation at the train station is insane."
"At first it feels manageable, but it gets A LOT worse when it comes time to actually board the train," the TV personality added. "Long story but all I can say now is that I'm a big man with nothing but a backpack it's TRAUMATIZING." He also noted that "it's sweaty and claustrophobic."
On Sunday, Maks divulged that he got arrested amid the war. "[There's] a lot of fighting everywhere. The streets are crazy. At one point I got arrested but again all good, promise," he said in an Instagram video. "That was probably the least traumatizing moment in this whole thing as far as Ukraine is concerned, but for me, it was just a reality check."
