New Zealand citizen fighting for Ukraine’s Armed Forces killed in Ukraine. Last week he saved Ukrainian national from Russian captivity

A citizen of New Zealand, former serviceman of the country’s Defence Force, Kane Te Tai, code name Turtle, has been killed in Ukraine. He was fighting among the ranks of the Ukrainian army. The news is reported by Radio New Zealand.

According to RNZ’s interlocutors, the soldier was killed in action in the east of Ukraine. He had been in Ukraine for almost a year. New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry declared that it was aware of reports of Te Tai’s death. 

On 13 March, Kane Te Tai shared in an Instagram post that he and his fellow soldiers had been able to capture a Russian position “after a quick battle”. While they were “clearing the bunker and basement”, liberated from Russian soldiers, he heard someone scream out, “I’m Ukrainian!” The New Zealander stopped the other servicemen from tossing a grenade. According to Te Tai, the Ukrainian POW recognised him and started screaming, “New Zealand! New Zealand!”

“I recognised him, it was my friend who I thought was killed by the Russians when they invaded his house. Heavily starved for two months and forced to drink antifreeze for entertainment, he barely looked like the man I knew a couple of months ago. But it was the best thing to happen to me in this God forsaken war,” the man wrote.

He posted videos of the “clearing” of the basement.

Kane Te Tai is the third New Zealander killed in the war in Ukraine. Another citizen of New Zealand, Dominic Abelen, was killed in Ukraine last August, his body has still not been located. Aid worker Andrew Bagshaw was killed by artillery fire in January; he was trying to rescue an elderly woman from her house.