Former defence minister Ron Mark, who headed to Ukraine to help the war effort against Russia last year, has paid tribute to a Kiwi solider believed to have been killed on the front lines this week.
New Zealand-trained Kane Te Tai has been fighting in Ukraine and had been keeping in daily contact with his family back home.
Just last week he posted a video from Ukraine showing the moment he reunited with his friend who had been held captive for months.
Reports of Te Tai's death are not yet officially confirmed.
"I'm told reliably that his body has been recovered and it's in a safe location," Mark — a former New Zealand First MP who is currently Carterton District mayor — said today.
Kane Te Tai had been fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine.
Asked about bringing the body back to New Zealand, he said: "The challenges will be firstly around what Kane wanted himself, what he told his mates who are serving alongside him that he wanted done, and then balanced clearly by what his mum wants.
"I'm very confident from the communications I've had already that everyone will lean in and do everything they possibly can to get Kane's body home if that's what he wanted and if that's what his mum wants.
"Enough people knew and loved Kane, from those who served with him in the battalion to those that served with him in Afghanistan... that desire will, I'm very sure, give support to his mum and help her to get her boy home."
Te Tai's death would be the third Kiwi killed in action in Ukraine since Russia's invasion began in February last year.
It comes after Dominic Abelen died fighting in Ukraine in August last year, and aid worker Andrew Bagshaw was killed in January this year while trying to rescue an elderly woman from her home.
Mark said Te Tai was "one of the guys who was with Dom [Abelen] when he was hit".
"It's tough... I knew the frustration that Kane went through trying to recover Dom, having to deal with the reality that they couldn't do that, and they wouldn't be able to, then learning that Dom's body was clearly in the hands of the Russians and would never be seen again.
"Those are things that Kane dealt with, we talked about those things and he'd come to terms with that," Mark said. "He'd also come to terms with the fact that if it happened to him, he did not want anybody sacrificing their lives just to get his dead body out.
"I came to really respect Kane... we're all feeling it," Mark added, tearing up.
"Kane was the sort of solider I'd love to have had in my unit. He's mischievous, naughty, professional, committed, courageous.
"I've been sitting here pondering, thinking about him for the last couple of days... humorous but hard, fair and flexible but firm, courageous and kind.
"I like to think we were all there for the right reason and definitely I know Kane was. We're gonna miss him."
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and trade maintains New Zealanders should not travel to Ukraine.
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