The 'Dancing With the Stars' pro says her husband is 'safe right now' but asks fans to pray that he's home soon.
Peta Murgatroyd's asking fans to pray for her husband Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who is currently stuck in Ukraine while the nation is under attack by Russia.
The Dancing With the Stars pro took to Instagram on Thursday and posted on her feed and Story a lengthy post about the overwhelming pain she finds herself as Maksim finds himself among the millions scattering for safety amid the crisis.
"Please pray for my husband Maks," Murgatroyd begins her post. "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."
Murgatroyd, who shares 5-year-old son Shai with Maksim, said many fans are asking her for details about her husband's whereabouts and acknowledged she doesn't have many answers but knows that "he is safe right now." She also implored fans to "pray for Ukraine and the innocent civilians who’s lives are being greatly uprooted."
Fellow DWTS pro Jenna Johnson also took to her Instagram Story to repost Murgatroyd's post. Johnson added, "Please pray for my brother-in-law who is stuck in Ukraine. The whole situation is devastating and truly heart breaking for the country. This is real and this is very scary."
On Thursday night, Maksim's brother, Valentin Chmerkovskiy, shared a powerful message to his Instagram story about the conflict, writing, "My parents fled this country for this exact reason. Not because it wasn't good to them, but because their kids would see war eventually."
"It's a cruel irony that 28 years later my brother is in a bomb shelter in Kiev," he continued. "If they hadn't left I would be on the front lines defending my home right now. And the most heartbreaking thing of all I would be either killing or dying at the hands of my fellow brothers. The Russian people don't want this!! We stood by each other's side. We celebrated one another. I speak Russian yes but make no mistake about it, I am a proud Ukrainian and now the world will finally know the difference."
In his post, Valentin also implored resistance to war, writing, "To all my Russian friends, this might be the best and only time to stand up to your dictator."
Valentine continued in a following post with a sobering prediction of the future of the ramifications this invasion could have for the people of Russian and Ukraine. "This conflict will not end with surrender. Ever," he wrote. "When the military will go down, there will be partisan and guerrilla warfare for as long as there are Ukrainians still living. Both sides will have massive casualties. For many years to come. Mothers will weep, kids will grow up without fathers, and for what??"
Earlier on Thursday, Maksim took to social media and spoke out from the capital of Kyiv amid Russia's invasion of the country. The 42-year-old ballroom dancer, who grew up in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union, is in the country filming as a judge for the upcoming season of Ukraine's World of Dance.
Maksim choked back tears while describing the scene in the now war-torn country. He also said his friends' relatives in Ukraine "can't just escape." While addressing any Russians watching, Maksim said, "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."
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