NJ's 'Dancing With The Stars' Celeb Flees Ukraine, Arrives In Poland

POLAND — Maksim Chmerkovskiy, the dancer and New Jersey business owner, said Tuesday he has reached Poland after escaping his native Ukraine.

The 42-year-old is best known to Americans for his work as a dancer and choreographer on "Dancing with the Stars." Chmerkovskiy lives in Fort Lee when he is in the U.S. and has a dance studio there. His family moved to the United States in the 1990s.

Chmerkovskiy left Ukraine on Monday via train, with about 130 other people. About 30 minutes from the Polish border, he said, the train stopped so a crew could change the wheels.

"Can't make this up," he said in a video update to Instagram.

"We had some fresh air and I went to the bathroom, and now we're going back."

He said there were five cars on the train, with one of them designated for sicker kids and people.

Shortly after 8 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, which is 2 p.m. in Warsaw, Chmerkovskiy posted on his Instagram page to say he was in Poland.

He also said he was briefly arrested in Kyiv before he left. Chmerkovskiy had been posting updates from the capital since Russia began invading Ukraine last week.

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