'DWTS' Maksim Chmerkovskiy Returns To Poland To Aid Refugees From Ukraine

“Dancing with the Stars” alum Maksim Chmerkovskiy is heading back to Poland to help refugees from Ukraine who are fleeing his home country.

The Ukrainian-born dancer made headlines earlier this month when he chronicled his escape from the war-torn region of Ukraine and made it to Poland. He managed to catch a flight home to Los Angeles to reunite with his family, but he has now returned to Poland to assist refugees.

Last night, Maksim posted an Instagram video from Poland, where he discussed a wide variety of topics.

“Hi everybody,” he began. “I’m fine. I’m good. I spent some time at home. I enjoyed some of that Los Angeles weather, saw my family, saw my friends, obviously spent some time.”

He explained that he was creating “tangible opportunities to help” and partnered with his brother and father to start a charitable organizing called Baranova 27 and a GoFundMe page to assist refugees.

“For those of who’ve been following, Baranova 27 is the address where my father, myself and Val were born, in Odesa in Ukraine,” Chmerkovskiy explained. “So, that’s where sort of our roots are at. And we’ve been working diligently on making Baranova 27 something that, as big as it took off, that it can continue that way.”

He said that he will also be providing boots-on-the-ground support in Poland to organize and distribute aid. He is also working with Bethenny Frankel’s organization BStrong, which has been distributing survival and hygiene kits to Ukrainian refugees.

In a previous Instagram video, Frankel wrote, “B STRONG UKRAINE UPDATE: We are in motion to ship 100,000 hygiene kits, #Bstrong survival kits, blankets, generators, sleeping bags to Ukraine’s NATO boarding countries. This initial commitment of supplies will exceed $10M. Our teams will be on the ground in Rzeszów, Poland Friday to set up base camps for refugee operations with our Polish and Ukrainian partners. We’re also working with military professionals, former Green Berets, and airlifting shipping boxes today. Airways are closed and it’s taking 7 hours to exit Kiev.#thisisacrisis”

“Donate to Bstrong at bethenny.com/bstrong 💯 goes to the effort and we will be the first base camp for refugee distribution supplies,” she added. “Bstrong in partnership with @globalempowermentmission #thisisacrisis #ukraine #donate.”

He concluded his message by asking his followers to take a mental break before coming back and continuing to provide support. He said that the humanitarian crisis un Ukraine “is getting worse; people are getting hurt worse.”

“I would really, really like for you guys to give yourself a day off,” Chmerkovskiy said. “Tune out, go to church, spend time with your family. Do your thing. But please, come back to us and come back to realization that a lot of people still need our help, and we should continue providing this support, because we now showed Ukraine as a world, that we can all do it together.”

In one troubling Instagram video in early March, Maksim warned that Russians were committing genocide by targeting Ukrainian civilians.

He captioned the video, “WAR. TARGETING CIVILIANS! This tactic is meant to demoralize the country and make Ukraine surrender. THIS! IS! GENOCIDE!”

A follower commented, “This breaks my heart. God said LOVE one another, NOT destroy one another!!!😢😢💔💔.”

“These videos and pictures are so devastating to watch – but they are needed – I can’t even begin to imagine what anyone in that region is feeling but this gives such a clear unfiltered view of what is happening…… praying for safely ❤️ the words sound so small but know thoughts and prayers are with you all,” another wrote.

“WAR,” he captioned another snap that showed the side of a building in Mariupol being hit by Russian bombs. “Mariupol’ last 22 hours - 22 air raids, around 100 bombs dropped. 2187 civilian deaths and counting….”

He included the hashtags #stopwarinukraine and #stoprussia.

Many followers commented on his posts, saying it made them “sad” and “angry” to watch the senseless death and destruction of so many innocent people. “War crimes,” one wrote. “Our hearts are breaking for Ukraine.”