Nikita Kuzmin reunited with grandmother after she fled Kyiv
Nikita Kuzmin has been reunited with his grandmother after she fled Kyiv amid Russia's invasion.
The 'Strictly Come Dancing' professional - who was born in the country but moved to Italy aged nine - travelled to Krakow, Poland from Frankfurt to meet his grandparent after she managed to make it safely from Ukraine to the Polish border, walking 8km in the wintery conditions, despite struggling with her mobility.
Nikita wrote on Instagram from the airport: “Picked up my grandma from Poland! She is so incredibly brave strong, 2 nights without sleeping, walking 8km+ in the freezing cold, when on a normal day, she can barely walk!
“She traveled from Kiev, my mom flew from Rome and i drove from Frankfurt and we all reunited in Krakow! Just so happy to be together. ps: heart and sunglasses covering the lack of sleep."
The 23-year-old dancer, who still has an aunt and his other grandma and grandpa in the Ukraine capital, admitted that while he was relieved to see his grandparent, he was distraught to witness the devastation caused by the war in "real life".
He continued: “When I was waiting for my mom and grandma at the train station, I’ve been immersed in this situation for the first time in real life. Although I know I should have been happy for my family, I couldn’t. Just had tears on my eyes, because of how sad the situation is. How many thousands of kids and women doing their absolute best to stay strong.
“I’ve seen people arriving from the border, people waiting for the next train to go somewhere, anywhere in hope that somehow things would be ok, people not knowing what to do, since all what they have known as home, it’s not there anymore.”
Nikita urged his followers to "do something" to help the people of his home country.
He concluded: “This is nowhere near to be over and the best thing that you can do is help anyhow, just DO SOMETHING."
Nikita had been video calling his grandparent and was growing increasingly concerned about her safety, as she tried to cover up the sounds of "gunshots and explosions" to protect her family.
He said: "Luckily, we still have a connection to her, so we are video calling her all the time.
"She's actually trying to protect us from being scared. Every time we can hear gunshots or explosions in the background, she's always telling us that it's a movie that she's put on TV and only afterwards, a couple of hours later, she's confessing that actually it's a real bomb, real gunshots - it's incredibly scary."
