Maksim Chmerkovskiy has arrived back in the United States.
The Dancing With the Stars alum safely landed in Los Angeles on March 2 after escaping from his native Ukraine and catching a flight out of Poland.
In photos obtained by E! News, Maksim is seen embracing his wife, fellow dancer Peta Murgatroyd, in a long hug at an LAX terminal. He was also captured giving a kiss to Peta in a video published by Entertainment Tonight.
Hours before touching down stateside, Maksim—who was in Ukraine to be a judge on World of Dance—shared a video message to his Instagram page saying that he was boarding a flight to Los Angeles. "I'm at the airport," he said in the clip. "I'm ready to go."
Maksim has been providing daily updates from Ukraine since Feb. 24, giving firsthand accounts on the state of the country amid a Russian military invasion and even shared last week that he had been arrested. "The streets are crazy. At one point, I got arrested…but all good, promise," he said, later detailing his journey from Ukraine to Poland before heading to the U.S.
On Feb. 28, Maksim revealed that he had escaped out of Ukraine and was on a train to Warsaw, Poland. "All I can say [now] is that I'm a big man with nothing but a backpack it's TRAUMATIZING," he shared on his Instagram. "Currently I'm in a cabin with 4 adults and 7 kids (ages 2-11) which usually is only occupied by maximum 3 people. There's usually up to 30 people in this particularly wagon. We were told we have to fit 135."
Just days before Maksim was successfully able to flea Ukraine, Peta made a plea on Instagram for her followers to keep him and the people of Ukraine in their prayers.
"Please pray for my husband Maks," she wrote on Feb. 24. "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 continued in her post, "Please pray that he comes home soon. Please pray that he has a swift, safe exit. I have FAITH. I have HOPE and I have PRAYED so hard."