New Zealander confirmed to have died in Ukraine since Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in 2022. <\/a><\/p>\nBefore leaving New Zealand in early 2025, the closest thing Sam had to military training was Airsoft in the Wait\u0101kere Ranges, where simulated combat attracts everyone from hobbyists to current and former soldiers. <\/p>\n
\u201cSam was incredibly skilful,\u201d Simon says. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had an instinct. He was tactical and extraordinarily calm under pressure.\u201d <\/p>\n
As a teenager, Sam became fascinated by the world of defence and private military contractors. He later enrolled in a Defence Studies degree at Massey University. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he left New Zealand, he told us he\u2019d got an intelligence job in Poland through people he\u2019d met at Airsoft,\u201d Simon says. <\/p>\n
![\"His]()
His family recently visited Ukraine to understand his experiences and meet his comrades from Alpha Two. Photo \/ Corey Fleming<\/p>\n
His parents believed him. <\/p>\n
But he never went to Poland. <\/p>\n
Instead, he crossed into Ukraine and enlisted. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf he\u2019d told us before he left that he was going to Ukraine, we would have thrown up a storm,\u201d Mary says. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo military experience. No combat experience. But the doors just kept opening for him and he just kept progressing.\u201d <\/p>\n
Within months, Sam had joined the Azov Brigade\u2019s International Battalion. <\/p>\n
Azov began in 2014 as a volunteer militia fighting Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, attracting controversy because of its early far-right associations. <\/p>\n
Over time, and after the brutal Russian siege of Mariupol in 2022, the unit was absorbed into Ukraine\u2019s National Guard and transformed into a more formal military force.<\/p>\n
![\"Sam]()
Sam Haines joined Ukrainian Special Forces with no prior military experience, becoming a respected soldier and leader.<\/p>\n
The Azov website recruitment pitch presents itself not simply as a military unit, but as a cause, a brotherhood in \u201cthe world\u2019s most intense conflict\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sam was selected for its Special Forces Assault Unit, serving alongside former American, British and European soldiers. <\/p>\n
One of them was an American from Tennessee who went by the call sign Cheese. <\/p>\n
\u201cSam was my best friend here,\u201d Cheese says during an encrypted WhatsApp call from somewhere in the Donbas. <\/p>\n
\u201cI treated him like my little brother.\u201d <\/p>\n
Behind him, hanging on the wall of what was once a garden tool shed, is a machine gun. He cleaned out the abandoned building himself and turned it into his room. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first moved in it was freezing,\u201d he says. \u201cNow that it\u2019s warming up, it\u2019s become a nice cosy little shack.\u201d <\/p>\n
The two men trained together for four months before joining Alpha Two, an assault unit responsible for clearing Russian trenches, bunkers and fortified positions. <\/p>\n
![\"Sam]()
Sam Haines (left) and Cheese (far right) in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The war in eastern Ukraine is frequently compared to the trench warfare of World War I \u2013 a grinding, brutal and bloody struggle for slivers of territory measured in metres and paid for in lives. <\/p>\n
Sam and Cheese were at the sharp end. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe war here is mostly a shrapnel war,\u201d Cheese says. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re throwing grenades into holes the size of a small room and shooting around corners.\u201d <\/p>\n
During their first operation together, Sam saved his life. <\/p>\n
The pair was running through a tree line under the gaze of a Russian drone. <\/p>\n
A moment after Cheese ran through, Sam stopped him. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a mine right next to you.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hours later, sheltering in a trench under artillery fire, another drone descended on their position. Sam grabbed Cheese and dragged him into cover. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was our introduction to Ukraine,\u201d Cheese says. <\/p>\n
The two men would fight on about a dozen operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cSam was one of the best,\u201d Cheese says. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe could do everything. Very calm and resilient. If I went to do something impulsive, he\u2019d stop me and say there was a better way.\u201d <\/p>\n
Their commander, known by the call sign Uno, remembers an ambush in which Alpha Two was pinned down by Russian troops. <\/p>\n
\u201cCheese and Sam ran forward and opened fire,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cSam emptied a thousand rounds into the tree line until the Russians pulled back. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey saved everybody\u2019s lives.\u201d <\/p>\n
Azov understands the value of imagery. <\/p>\n
Soldiers wear body cameras, and footage is routinely uploaded online. <\/p>\n
The videos resemble a first-person shooter game: a rubble-strewn hellscape, sudden bursts of gunfire, a soundtrack layered with heavy metal. <\/p>\n
Mary and Simon have watched some of that footage since Sam died. In several of the videos, the figure moving through a warzone is their son. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw him literally fighting in a trench,\u201d says Simon. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a Russian trying to shoot at him just on the other side of a trench bunker.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mary says she found it \u201cterrifying\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept thinking, how can he be doing this? He seemed as calm as anything under fire.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mary and Simon spoke to their son every couple of weeks. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe never told us where he was,\u201d Mary says. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought he was in Poland. We thought he was making $80,000 working for an intelligence agency.\u201d <\/p>\n
The truth was very different. <\/p>\n
Sam was living in eastern Ukraine, earning US$500 ($880) a month and fighting on one of the most dangerous front lines in the world. <\/p>\n
![\"Sam]()
Sam Haines left New Zealand with no combat training but joined Azov\u2019s elite assault unit. <\/p>\n
Cheese understood why Sam had kept the secret. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d done the same thing with my dad,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cYour mind\u2019s made up. You don\u2019t want the people you love trying to talk you out of it.\u201d <\/p>\n
In August, Sam called home. He told his parents he was thinking about returning to New Zealand for a short break. <\/p>\n
As the conversation ended, he paused. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then he said, \u2018Okay, do you want me to tell you what it is I\u2019ve been doing?\u2019,\u201d Mary recalls. <\/p>\n
\u201cBuckle up,\u201d Sam told his parents. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in Ukraine. I\u2019m fighting with the Special Forces,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou know I\u2019ve always wanted to be a soldier.\u201d <\/p>\n
For months, they had imagined one version of their son\u2019s life. Now they were hearing another. <\/p>\n
Mary kept asking him the same question. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cHe just said it was … \u2018the right thing to do\u2019,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd he also said this is something he could do.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sam told them he had been serving on assault teams. The experience, he told them, had shaken him. <\/p>\n
He was planning to step back from frontline operations and move into an instructor or radio communications role. <\/p>\n
\u201cI never really believed he would step back,\u201d Mary says. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe found his tribe. They loved him. They cared for him. I think he felt understood there.\u201d <\/p>\n
Cheese got it. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of guys who come to Ukraine to get into the private military industry,\u201d says Cheese. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut then there\u2019s a switch where the amount of purpose, brotherhood and sacrifice is so powerful you end up being here just for that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Before his final deployment, Sam called home again. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018Oh no, it\u2019s safe, Mum. It\u2019s safe, there\u2019ll be no drones. We\u2019ll have plenty of support\u2019,\u201d Mary recalls. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe always said to me; \u2018We\u2019re the good guys, Mum\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n
Simon asked him to come home. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe said; \u2018Look, if I pull out at this point, the rest of my team\u2019s lives will be in danger\u2019. I didn\u2019t like it, but I had to accept it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Alpha Two had been sent to clear Russian forces from the village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz, in Ukraine\u2019s eastern Donbas. <\/p>\n
Progress came slowly, one street, one house at a time. <\/p>\n
By then, casualties had reshaped the unit. Cheese had become team leader. Sam, just 22, was voted in as his second-in-command. <\/p>\n
![\"Sam]()
Sam Haines \u2013 Azov Brigade \u2013 has been remembered by family and comrades. <\/p>\n
On the seventh day, a Russian glide bomb forced the men to look for cover. They found an abandoned house and headed for the cellar.<\/p>\n
Cheese told Sam to take point.<\/p>\n
The staircase was narrow.<\/p>\n
The cellar below was dark.<\/p>\n
Inside were three Russian soldiers.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs soon as they got into the basement, there was gunfire,\u201d Cheese says.<\/p>\n
Sam and the soldier behind him were killed almost instantly. A third man crawled back up the stairs, badly wounded.<\/p>\n
That left Cheese and a machine gunner outside the cellar entrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m shooting down, and I start getting engaged by the three Russians in the basement,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019re shooting back up and out.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Russians ignored repeated calls to surrender.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe threw fragmentation grenades. We threw smoke,\u201d Cheese says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t come out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among Azov fighters, there is an unwritten rule: the dead are not left behind.<\/p>\n
But Sam and the other fallen soldier were carrying equipment that could not be allowed to fall into Russian hands.<\/p>\n
Azov command gave Cheese an order. If they couldn\u2019t recover the bodies, they would have to destroy the position.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grabbed a tank mine, ran back around the position, and threw it into the cellar and levelled it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
For Cheese, yes, it was a hard thing for him to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d he says. \u201cI mean, you\u2019re throwing a mine into where your best friend is.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pauses.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut given the equipment that we had and the threat level, there was no other option.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"From]()
From Airsoft to Azov: the secret life and death of 22-year-old New Zealander Sam Haines. <\/p>\n
The blast left a crater about three metres deep. <\/p>\n
It took the men four hours to recover the bodies. <\/p>\n
In Kyiv, winter had arrived. <\/p>\n
On a snowy day in Independence Square, Sam Haines was given a military funeral.<\/p>\n
His coffin was draped with a New Zealand flag, surrounded by the men he had fought beside. <\/p>\n
It would be another seven weeks before he came home. <\/p>\n
By then it was January, the summer sun high over the North Shore as his family and friends laid him to rest. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a brutal lesson in what actually matters in life,\u201d Simon says.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the things I thought mattered actually don\u2019t. I would just give anything to reverse that clock and take him back.\u201d <\/p>\n
Until now, the family have chosen to grieve in private. <\/p>\n
Because Sam entered Ukraine on a British passport, there was no formal notification in New Zealand and few people beyond those closest to him knew what had happened. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been at pains to keep it out of any public attention,\u201d Simon says. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to deal with it among family and friends before we went public.\u201d <\/p>\n
Mary says: \u201cHe went from a young guy to a man over there. We never got to know that man\u201d. <\/p>\n
In May, Simon, Mary and their daughter Holly travelled to Ukraine. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t understand war,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get some sense of that to see, what it was like for him. Because no matter how hard I try, I can\u2019t understand why he had to die.\u201d <\/p>\n
On their third night in Kyiv, they got their answer \u2013 or at least a glimpse of it. <\/p>\n
At 2am, Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults of the year. <\/p>\n
Drones and missiles poured into the city. A missile struck a nearby apartment building, killing a 12-year-old boy. <\/p>\n
One of the drones skimmed over the skylight above the apartment where the family were staying. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe way the drones moved, almost like insects, weaving around the buildings, just felt completely sinister,\u201d Simon says. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was very scared. And that\u2019s not the front line. That\u2019s nothing compared to what the soldiers are facing.\u201d <\/p>\n
The family were presented with the medals Sam had been awarded for bravery, including one signed by the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. <\/p>\n
![\"Sam]()
Sam Haines’ parents have spoken publicly for the first time about their son\u2019s death. <\/p>\n
They visited and tidied his memorial in Kyiv\u2019s Independence Square, where tens of thousands of flags now flutter in honour of the soldiers killed in this war. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo think that each one of those has a family like ours behind it \u2013 it\u2019s almost too big to comprehend,\u201d Simon says. <\/p>\n
But it was meeting the men of Alpha Two that mattered most. <\/p>\n
They had travelled from different parts of Ukraine to meet the parents of the young New Zealander they had fought beside. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe lengths people went to, to meet these parents they\u2019d never met before, showed the respect and the bond between those guys,\u201d Simon says. \u201cThey clearly loved each other.\u201d <\/p>\n
For Mary, those conversations filled in parts of the story she could never have known. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey said he was an amazing soldier and a great leader as well,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor a 22-year-old, we thought, \u2018Oh my gosh\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n
Before Simon and Mary left Ukraine, Cheese made the seven-hour journey from the front line to see them. <\/p>\n
He brought one last gift. <\/p>\n
Sam\u2019s helmet. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the last thing we have that he was wearing when he died,\u201d Simon says. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt still has the battle scars from everything he\u2019d been through. It\u2019ll become an important part of our family\u2019s history.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI feel bad for their loss,\u201d Cheese says. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was like a little brother to me. I feel like I should have protected him. But he was a grown man. He made his choice. We were in it together.\u201d <\/p>\n
After Sam\u2019s death, Cheese left the front line and asked to become an instructor. <\/p>\n
Even now, he says, the events of that day remain close. <\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I\u2019m still there,\u201d he says. \u201cI think about it every day. There were moments when I wondered whether I should even still be here.\u201d <\/p>\n
For a while, he considered leaving the war altogether. <\/p>\n
Instead, he returned. <\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it would dishonour him,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cEverything he put into it. Everything he gave.\u201d <\/p>\n
When Mary heard that, she told him something she hopes he believes. <\/p>\n
\u201cI said to him, \u2018The one thing Sam would want is for you to stay alive\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople always blame themselves when someone dies. They think they could have done something different. But I don\u2019t know why Sam died. I never will.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ukraine answered some of the questions Simon and Mary had carried for months. <\/p>\n
It helped them understand the soldier their son had become. <\/p>\n
It could not change what had happened. <\/p>\n
\u201cI realised that he really was dead,\u201d Simon says. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy place is here as a witness in New Zealand and if he is somewhere, it\u2019s more in the home and the places where he grew up.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cJust tell me,\u201d she said. The officer asked if they could go inside first. \u201cNo,\u201d Mary replied. \u201cJust…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[131961,2840,254225,7236,6179,254222,17515,18791,2082,1874,134831,254223,1345,2273,221,16099,7052,647,111,43,139,529,69,691,35478,9095,18484,6037,10707,198172,2742,254224,3461,102,80,12598],"class_list":["post-510739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-22yearold","tag-across","tag-chime","tag-combat","tag-died","tag-doorbell","tag-experience","tag-fighting","tag-for","tag-found","tag-gate","tag-haines","tag-home","tag-houses","tag-how","tag-kind","tag-mary","tag-military","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-nz","tag-or","tag-plays","tag-secret","tag-shore","tag-simon","tag-sons","tag-spencers","tag-thousands","tag-twonote","tag-ukraine","tag-with","tag-zealand","tag-zero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}