SHARE

NJ's Maksim Chmerkovskiy Of 'DWTS' Stranded In Ukraine

Maksim Chmerkovskiy flipped his camera on and in seconds, a siren went off.

Maksim Chmerkovskiy

Maksim Chmerkovskiy

Photo Credit: Maksim Chmerkovskiy Instagram

The New Jersey native and "Dancing with the Stars" personality is stuck in Kyiv, Ukraine, amid the Russian invasion.

As he spoke to his Instagram followers early Friday, an airstrike happened.

"This is real," said Chmerkovskiy, 42, of Fort Lee. "There is major life suffering going on. I’m talking to my friends that are here now with kids getting sick because they're staying in basements with no heat. This needs to come to an end."

The professional dancer's father owned a dance studio in Ridgewood that later moved to Saddle Brook. He went on to work as a professional dancer and competed on "Dancing with the Stars" for 15 seasons.

Chmerkovskiy has been in Ukraine for the last six months filming dance competition series "World of Dance."

The dancer said he has no plans on moving toward the border simply because it's more dangerous than staying put.

"I'm not moving toward the border, there's absolutely no way," he said. "There's military personnel everywhere. There are tanks going and pummeling cars trying to move out of the city — this is nonsense and it has to stop."

to follow Daily Voice Englewood and receive free news updates.

SCROLL TO NEXT ARTICLE