Kiwi soldier Kane Te Tai reportedly killed in Ukraine
A Kiwi soldier reportedly killed while fighting in Ukraine was a “warrior” whose family should be proud.
Jordan O’Brien, another NZDF veteran also fighting in Ukraine, said Kane Te Tai’s unit commander told him Te Tai was the soldier who had been killed.
“I just want people to know that he was a warrior, and he went out like a warrior. He died fighting for a cause he believed in wholeheartedly,” O’Brien said.
Tributes have begun to flow for Kane Te Tai, who would be the third death of a Kiwi in Ukraine after an aid worker and solider were killed there since war broke out in February 2022.
Te Tai has gone quiet online in recent days after previously being active on social media. He only recently went viral online when posting a heartwarming video of rescuing a captured friend he thought was dead.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday afternoon the ministry was aware of reports of the death of a Kiwi in the war-torn country.
RNZ quoted sources in Ukraine as saying the man’s unit commander said the soldier was killed in a battle in the east of the country.
Former defence minister Ron Mark, who met Te Tai while in Kyiv, Ukraine for humanitarian relief work, said he was waiting for confirmation, but was “deeply, deeply saddened” to hear reports of his death.
“Kane was a good man. I admired him enormously, and I know the Ukrainian people I know are deeply saddened. And I know that his comrades in the [Ukrainian] international legion respected the hell out of him,” he said.
“New Zealand should be proud. His mum should be proud. His family should be proud. Because regardless of people’s view, Kane did what he believed to be right. Kane saw a situation that was untenable.”
“But he knew what he was getting into. He knew the price, and he was easy with that.”
Mark said Kane had started out training Ukrainian soldiers and evacuating people, making a “slow transition” from helper to combat soldier – what he had been trained for.
“They were intensely focussed on providing the best training they possibly could to these Ukrainian civilians turned soldiers.
“Kane had something, and he gifted it.”
Dominic Abelen was killed in August, 2022, when the secretive military intelligence unit he was working for assaulted a Russian trench in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.
In early January, Kiwi aid worker Andrew Bagshaw‘s body was found in eastern Ukraine after he went missing weeks earlier.
