Peta Murgatroyd, a professional dancer who appeared on more than a dozen seasons of Dancing with the Stars, is asking for prayers for her husband, fellow dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who is currently in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Chmerkovskiy, who is in the country of his birth where he was judging “World of Dance,” has shared numerous updates on social media about what he is witnessing in Kyiv in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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On Thursday (February 25), Maks’ wife, Peta, took to social media to ask for prayers for her husband’s safe return.
“Please pray for my husband Maks. I don’t usually ask these things from my social media network, however today is extremely hard and the next few will be even harder….My pain is overwhelming and I’m struggling, but you sending your positive light and love to him would mean the world to me. Truly I wish for nothing more,” Peta shared on Instagram Thursday (February 24). “Please pray that he comes home soon. Please pray that he has a swift, safe exit.”
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On Thursday morning, Chmerkovskiy shared a series of videos from near the center of Kyiv where he shared his desire to go home as sirens can be heard blaring in the background.
“I’m in Kyiv, contrary to what I probably should’ve done a while ago…and not that no one saw this coming, but everybody was hoping that the finality of this situation would be averted, that there wasn’t going to be these kind of aggressive measures,” the Ukrainian-born dancer said in the first video.
In a second clip, the Dancing with the Stars pro fights back tears as he admits that “it’s been a little difficult” to witness the attack on his home country. “You know me. I stay strong, and I don’t show it….But 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,” said Maks.
His most recent video shared that he is safe, but reminded those watching that there are a lot of people in Ukraine who aren’t safe.
“…This is very, very, very real, what’s happening now,” he said. “I’m packed, I’m ready, my hotel has a bomb shelter. We can go there now, but the few of us decided to maybe wait until we hear the sirens and then we’ll be down there. I’m going to try and keep you guys updated and show you what it’s really like, but the reality is it’s exactly what it looks like on TV.”
Maks and Peta wed in 2017 and share a son, Shai. Follow Maksim Chmerkovskiy on Instagram for updates, and watch his previously posted videos below.
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