The pro dancer was reunited with his family on Wednesday after evacuating Ukraine.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy is back on U.S. soil. After fleeing Ukraine following Russia's invasion, the 42-year-old pro dancer made it back to Los Angeles, where he was met by his wife, Peta Murgatroyd, in an emotional reunion.
The couple shared a long embrace in the terminal of LAX, before walking out together.
ET's Kevin Frazier spoke with Chmerkovskiy in the airport, and the dancer was overcome with emotion, admitting, "I just don't want to resent peace somewhere else because of what I just saw, that's the reality. I don't know really what to say right this second."
The former Dancing With the Stars pro also shared a heartfelt hug with Frazier in the airport, after being welcomed back home safely.
Chmerkovskiy subsequently addressed photographers and reporters outside LAX, and addressed the ongoing fighting in Ukraine amid Russia's invasion and assault on the nation's major cities, as well as his own experiences returning to the US.
"The reason why Ukraine is standing right now is because of the Ukrainian people," Chmerkovskiy said, explaining that this sort of conflict was something many had been expecting for years. "And the fact that the entire world is helping."
"Huge shout out to Poland, huge shout out to neighboring countries," he added. "The way I was treated through the whole process of leaving into Poland, I've just got to bow down to the Polish people."
Chmerkovskiy added in regards to the conflict's global impact, "If we don't get involved, this thing is going to go everywhere else. I think that in 2022, following this action, we have to completely rethink the way we do things as a planet. There can never again be one person who can do something like this ever again. We have to have checks and balances globally, not just one country at a time."
Chmerkovskiy, who grew up in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union and was in town to serve as a judge on the country's upcoming season of World of Dance, began documenting his experience last month.
"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," he said, alluding to his wife and child, who were both in the U.S. "I am not at this point someone who is pleading for someone else's safety from a far distance, from a safe distance. I'm somebody who's about to go into a bomb shelter because s**t's going down."
"I will never be the same," he added. "This is stressful and I’m getting old feelings back, like I’ve done this before. This does feel like the way it was when and why we left in the '90s. Like my old PTSD I’ve finally fixed is coming back."
In his next update, Chmerkovskiy said he was in "the safest place I can find," but was "just ready to go home."
He started trying to make his way home shortly thereafter, after he was arrested in Kyiv, which he called "the least traumatizing moment in this whole thing."
Chmerkovskiy made it on a train heading to Warsaw, Poland, next, noting, "I’m a big man with nothing but a backpack it’s TRAUMATIZING... Walkways are packed. People everywhere. It’s sweaty and claustrophobic."
On Monday, Chmerkovskiy announced that he successfully made it to Poland. From there, Chmerkovskiy revealed he was at the airport, preparing to board a plane to head back to Los Angeles.
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