Russia Killed My Friend Yesterday

Two weapons belonging to foreign military volunteers. Photo taken by a friend of the author and shared with permission.

Russia killed my friend yesterday. My last message to him remains undelivered. He will never read it.

I became friends with Kane Te Tai after I helped a man from his unit get to his home country after an injury. Kane found me on social media just to say thank you. Here was this man facing artillery barrages and sleeping in trenches yet he still found the time to learn who helped his mate and thank them.

We did not know each other for long, but it is easy to bond when you are both two people in extraordinary circumstances. Anyone with a prominent pro-Ukraine social media presence knows we must endure some things for the greater good. We get used to the trolling, the threats, the harassment and the bizarre messages. We tell everyone we are used to it, that it doesn’t bother us. But when we are with each other we admit that yes, it does bother us and yes, it is stressful and sometimes we read a message that gets under our skin and stops us from sleeping. We get used to our names and our faces being out there so that others can stay anonymous. However when media requests come, the private people we once were emerge, and we fight an internal battle of how much pressure we are willing to accept.

Kane endured all the pressure. Several days before Russia killed him, he posted a now famous video in which his team cleared a building and entered…