The family of a New Zealander who has reportedly died fighting in Ukraine said they tried to stop him travelling to fight against Russia.
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Radio NZ reports Kane Te Tai, a former New Zealand Defence Force soldier, has been killed while fighting Russian forces in the east of the country.
Mr Te Tai was part of an international legion of fighters who volunteered their services to defend Ukraine from Russia's illegal invasion.
The soldier's mother, Ngaire Te Tai, said she had been informed by colleagues of his son's death.
"I'm trying to understand why he did. Why he left the country and went to Ukraine," she told Radio NZ.
"We tried to stop him from going over but he had his mind made up.
"We had no other choice to accept what could be inevitable ... I accept that is what he wanted to do but I didn't accept that I wouldn't see him again."
Ms Te Tai described him as an "awesome father. Awesome son. Awesome uncle and brother".
"He's been through so much in his young life and he's just a survivor. When you were around him you just felt safe," she said.
Mr Te Tai, 38, was profiled in a piece titled "Trapped in the Trenches in Ukraine" published by the New Yorker magazine last December, which used his nickname: turtle.
He also founded a charity to support former defence force personnel in tough times.
Mr Te Tai is the third New Zealander known to have died in the war-torn country.
Another 28-year-old soldier who took leave without pay, Dominic Abelen, died fighting in the eastern Donbas region last August.
Mr Te Tai was on that same mission, saying Mr Abelen was fighting in a trench when he was shot in the head, dying instantly.
"We had lost the central figure to our team, the guy that was unbreakable," Mr Te Tai told Stuff last year.
"He was an absolute machine."
Andrew Bagshaw, a volunteer aid worker, was killed in January after attempting to rescue a Ukrainian woman in Soledar, a town north of Donetsk.
Dr Bagshaw's father said he "set off with a rucksack and travel guide and nothing more" after feeling for the plight of Ukrainians.
"He took food, water and medicine to isolated areas. We are told hundreds of people were saved by him and his colleagues under the most amazing of circumstances," Phil Bagshaw told the University of Otago.
Australian Associated Press
