The dramatic 45-second video exhibits Te Tai getting into a basement of a constructing lined in rubble.
“We hit a Russian position a few days ago and after a quick battle and breach we started clearing the bunker and basement,” Te Tai mentioned on social media.
The video exhibits Te Tai and several other different troopers getting into the basement, with Te Tai telling an individual to place their arms up.
But as Te Tai put the person on the bottom and started to go looking him, the pair locked eyes.
The Ukrainian man began to shout “New Zealand, New Zealand”.
“Oh, my brother,” Te Tai exclaims.
“I recognised him, it was my friend who I thought was killed by the Russians when they invaded his house,” he mentioned on social media.
Te Tai described the sensation of saving him as superior.
“I had been running around this place causing trouble for the last two months thinking of him and our friends in those houses daily. Thinking they were gone.
“I’m glad he survived. It was serendipitous,” he said.
Te Tai said during the man’s two-month capture, he was heavily starved and forced to drink anti-freeze for entertainment by his Russian captors.
“It was the very best factor to occur to me on this godforsaken battle,” Te Tai said.
“To be capable of save your mates is one thing that nearly by no means occurs however I’m grateful and blessed that it was us that might pull him from that hell gap.”
The pair had bonded months earlier because of the man’s knowledge of the Lord of the Rings films and his desire to visit New Zealand.
The man was originally living away from the war in Montenegro, but had joined the Ukrainian army out of passion for his country, Te Tai said.
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Source: www.9news.com.au
