Chmerkovskiy along with his family created the organization Baranova 27 to help organize and provide aid to refugees from and those still in the country that is being devastated by war. “My father and my brother, together with a lot of people that we work with all the time, that we’re just friends with…we’ve started our organization, Baranova 27,” said Chmerkovskiy in a video posted on Instagram from Warsaw. He went on to share that Baranova 27 is the address where he, his father and his brother, two-time DWTS champion pro Val Chmerkovskiy, were born in Odesa, Ukraine. “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.” On Baranova 27’s GoFundMe page, it states that the organization is 100 percent volunteer-based. “People from all over have rallied together and have offered not just donations but their time and resources to provide real help to the families and frontline heroes in Ukraine who need it the most,” the page states. Within the first weeks, they have already shipped out over 61 tons of aid. Maks went on to share that he plans to visit Bethenny Frankel’s organization BStrong, which is helping to bring aid to refugees in Poland. “She’s been doing amazing work. She has a couple of centers right at the borders. I’m gonna go visit them, see them, see if I can help be of any service, and also just gonna give you guys my perspective of everything that’s happening,” he said in the video on Instagram. “And also obviously see how she’s doing it because again, this is incredible infrastructure, we’re all learning. And we’re learning with Baranova.” Last month during the Russian invasion, Chmerkovskiy was in Ukraine working on World of Dance UA and other dance related projects when he was told to leave. Before heading to Poland on a train he posted videos of injured civilians and shared his reflections on the devastation and brutality. “I felt really bad going,” he told Anderson Cooperin an interview on CNN two weeks ago about leaving the country where he was born. Not long after returning to Los Angeles to his wife Peta Murgatroyd and son Shai, he spoke of his struggle being back home. As he told Cooper, “I spent the last couple of days with survivor’s remorse.” Chmerkovskiy ended the video with a plea for assistance and understanding. “I wanna say right now that we’re getting a little bit hungover, people are getting tired. And this is the time that I would like to ask everybody to realize that it didn’t—not end or slow down, it got worse in Ukraine,” he said. “And I want everyone to understand what that means, because everything that happened, happened fast and it was traumatic and it was worldwide and everything. But right now, it is getting worse…there are more people getting hurt. A lot of people need our help.” Next, Get to Know Maks’ Brother Val and His Sweet Dancing with the Stars Pro Wife View this post on Instagram
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