Dancing with the Stars alum Maksim Chmerkovskiy admits he felt guilty and ashamed for fleeing his native Ukraine on a train full of women and children instead of staying to help fight Putin’s invasion.
Speaking on Good Morning America on Wednesday, Chmerkovsky said: “Yes, I feel guilty, I feel bad, I’m ashamed, I’m upset.” The 42-year-old dancer, who left Ukraine for the US at the age of 14, raised eyebrows to see him flee the war-torn country last month and travel business class back to the United States to join his wife and son, who live in Malibu. .
He has since returned to Poland to found the charity Baranova 27, which helps refugees who fled their homes in Ukraine after they safely crossed the Polish border. It is named after the dancer’s former address in Ukraine.
Chmerkovsky, 42, said he returned to Poland to make amends after he was blasted by critics for his defection.
“I feel like it’s my duty,” he told Good Morning America on Wednesday. “I’m here to remind people that it’s only getting worse.”
“I feel like it’s my duty,” he told Good Morning America on Wednesday. “I’m here to remind people that it’s only getting worse.
Asked why he ever returned to the conflict zone again after having to flee, Chmerkovsky replied that he had to do the right thing.
“It’s just surviving on that train to Warsaw when I finally got home and finally saw (his wife) Peta, and we had such emotional moments when I realized that I had to return,” he said.
“to be able to prove to my son that I am a man, I want him to be proud of me, and maybe this is an opportunity to show him exactly how to do the right thing.”
Chmerkovskiy spoke about his harrowing journey to Poland by train to GMA host T.J. Holmes.
“I am very grateful that things like this change me as a person,” Chmerkovskiy said of his ability to give back. In the photo, he helps Ukrainian refugees in Poland.
Chmerkovskiy is shown on the train from Kyiv to Poland. He said that he sat between the cars so as not to take up someone’s “space”, but he could not stay there all the time because it was too cold.
“I’m dying inside because it’s still very emotional for me, kids everywhere, kids everywhere – freezing temperatures,” he said.
The UN has confirmed that some 2.7 million people have left Ukraine as refugees, with the vast majority heading west to EU countries, and that number is expected to rise to more than 4 million in the coming weeks.
The charity set up housing for refugees, and in a selfie video, Chmerkovsky showed an apartment in Poland that refugees and children would live in.
“In fact, this is your version of the hostel, in particular, the owners of this house will help in everything related to kindergarten, school,” he said.
Chmerkovskiy announced the creation of a new charitable organization called “Baranova 27”, named after the address of his birthplace in Odessa, Ukraine.
Maxim Chmerkovskiy with his wife Peta Murgatroyd in Malibu after returning to America from Ukraine
The charity also helps deliver food, clothes, diapers and other essentials to Ukraine and Poland.
So far, they have sent almost 280,000 pounds of essential goods to those in need.
It is a family business where Chmerkovskiy’s brother and father help run the operations.
Chmerkovskiy told GMA that charity is his way of helping ordinary Ukrainians.
“I got a call from a friend of mine who said they ran out of supplies and I was able to direct him to us in Lviv where he can pick up supplies and while we were talking I got a text message about a shelter for 200 children. who have very little supply at the moment, and after our call, I hang up and am going to set up a supply chain that will deliver exactly what they are asking for.”
“I am very grateful for things like this that change me as a person,” Chmerkovskiy said.
Chmerkovskiy, 42, is best known for his work as a dancer on the ABC reality show.
Maxim Chmerkovskiy is shown as a teenager with his younger brother Valentin. They moved to the US when he was 14 in 1994 as refugees and automatically lost their Ukrainian citizenship.
The Dancing with the Stars pro was crucified by critics not only for fleeing the region when other less equipped volunteers were left to fight, but for subsequently detailing his ordeal on social media and TV interviews.
The dancer, who admitted to feeling bad about the choice in early March, declined to be interviewed by , but an acquaintance said he did nothing wrong.
“Max is not a Ukrainian citizen, he is a US citizen. He couldn’t just “stay and fight.”
“The story of avoiding any obligations to Ukraine is simply not true,” they said.
The source added that he moved to the US as a 14-year-old refugee in 1994 and automatically renounced his citizenship in the process. Ukraine does not recognize dual citizenship.
He told Anderson Cooper that he was “fired on by sources” including “military” who told him that he would be the first to be evacuated when Putin struck and that he “had no choice” but to leave.
He did not provide any other details about who exactly told him to leave.
Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 have been banned from leaving the country, and President Volodymyr Zelensky has issued a desperate appeal around the world for able-bodied men to join the International Legion of his Territorial Defense Army.
A couple of weeks ago, Chmerkovsky said he would return to Poland to help with the relief effort. In the meantime, he was raising money online and his family in New Jersey was raising money and packaging aid for refugees.
His brother Valentin, another DWTS professional, and his father, Alexander “Sasha” Chmerkovskiy, help with this.
Sasha, head of Dance With Me USA, lives in Edgewater, New Jersey with his wife Larisa.
Valentine lives in California with his wife, dancer Jenna Johnson.
Their grandmother lives in Brooklyn, New York, which is the first American city they settled in after emigrating in the 1990s.
Chmerkovskiy joined DWTS in 2006 when he was 26 years old.
Max Chmerkovsky with mother Larisa, father Sasha and brother Valentin. The family moved to the US in 1994 as refugees.
Max with his son, grandmother and brother Valentine in Brooklyn. The family moved to New York in 1994.
His flight from the conflict was a great relief to his fans, but angered critics and people who didn’t watch the show, especially considering how many older people, women and foreigners in Ukraine chose to fight.
In an interview with CNN, he said that the Ukrainians are “ready” for the conflict and have been preparing for it for months. When Putin invaded, Maxim claims he was “told” he “had to leave.”
“They just told me I have to go. I must say about the Ukrainian people as a whole, they were ready for this conflict. That’s the general feeling.
“I was told all the time, if something happens, we will take you out, you will be the first.”
“When everything happened, it happened suddenly. The day it happened, someone bombed my phone saying, “You need to go now.”
“They started calling me from various sources, the military said:“ You have to go, things are about to go crazy.
He clarified who helped him leave or advised him to leave. Other Americans reported that they did not receive any assistance from the State Department and were forced to find their own ways out of the conflict.
Maxim said that he was “very bad to go” and it got “even worse” when he got to the Kiev station and realized that he was one of, if not the only person on the train.
“I realized that it was all women and children, and I was too big and taking up space. I’m stuck between trains. Internally, I justified my space because I was outside,” he said, referring to his decision to sit between the cars for a while along the way.
He eventually went back inside because it was “too cold”.
“I helped a lot with bags and stuff, just to make sure I wasn’t taking up space.”
