A New Zealander killed while volunteering in war-torn Ukraine is today being remembered by his distraught parents as an “independent free-thinker” who stood up against Russia’s “immoral” war, which they say amounts to genocide.
Dame Sue and Professor Phil Bagshaw this morning confirmed the body of their 47-year-old son Andrew had been found.
They spoke to media in Christchurch today and vowed that his “death shall not be in vain”.
He was killed alongside British volunteer Christopher Parry, 28, while trying to rescue an elderly woman in an area of intense military action in Soledar, when their car was hit by an artillery shell.
The parents spoke at lunchtime from Canterbury Charity Hospital in Christchurch, in a small meeting room packed with journalists and cameras.
Phil Bagshaw began by apologising to journalists for his appearance, saying; “You’ll forgive us for not looking the part here”.
He then read their released statement to the media, addressing their son’s death.
“The Ukrainian authorities, and government officials in New Zealand and London, have been working hard to learn more details but little further is known about the circumstances of his death,” the Bagshaw family said.
“Andrew selflessly took many personal risks and saved many lives; we love him and are very proud indeed of what he did.”
The family confirmed it would be some time before Andrew’s remains returned to NZ because of official legal processes in Ukraine.
“We intend that his death shall not be in vain,” the family said.
“We are among many parents who grieve the deaths of their sons and daughters.”
When asked when they last spoke to Andrew, Sue said they communicated over WhatsApp frequently, but this stopped from about September or October last year.
“He was probably getting into more dangerous work... we’d have rather if he communicated more regularly,” his mother said.
“His sister felt that he was probably getting into the more dangerous work then and didn’t want to worry us... he didn’t want to get us upset.”
Asked when they found out he was missing, Phil Bagshaw said: ”We’ve known that something like this was likely to happen for a long time, it’s only very recently that they’ve been able to say to us that there’s any degree of certainty that they know where he was or what had happened to him, it was very recent news.
”Even now they’re still investigating who the people are... they have to cope with enormous numbers of dead and dying people so it’s only very recently that we were told by the NZ police first and then the Foreign Office in London, that there is a high degree of certainty that he’s dead”.
Phil said his son’s body was now in the mortuary in the children’s hospital in Kyiv.
The grieving pair spoke gently, but with strength and composure throughout the press conference. Tears welled in Phil’s eyes as he remembered his son as an independent thinker.
“It’s incredible what he achieved in such a short space of time,” he said.
”We tried to convince him not to go [but] we rapidly realised telling him that would be a waste of time.”
The professor said they were told by hundreds of people that Andrew served under “the most extraordinary of circumstances”, where he took food and medicine to those he helped evacuate.
Andrew even helped abandoned pets and fed them, his parents said.
Sue said her son was “an amazing man with so much talent”.
The parents confirmed they have been in contact with Parry’s family in the UK, although they admitted keeping in contact had proven difficult given the time difference.
“Like us, they don’t know what to say,” said Sue.
The parents were asked whether they believe other Kiwis should continue to serve overseas in Ukraine.
Sue paused for a second to consider her answer, she then admitted while the work is dangerous that “it needs doing”.
“The Russians, in my view are committing genocide,” she said, before stating their actions were “totally immoral”.
Phil added: “Andrew always had that stubbornness to never give in. We will take up the cause and speak with as many people as we can”.
The parents don’t want his death to be in vain. At one stage, Sue told reporters she wants to talk to the people in the United Nations with their “posh living and fancy words”, to shake them up.
“People are dying all the time, there’s wars all over. It’s about time we realised war does not solve anything,” she said.
The pair told the media they don’t know when their son’s body will return, making plans for a ceremony uncertain at this stage.
”We’re trying hard to do what they want, not what we feel.”
The parents called for nations of the world to stop the “immoral war” and to help the Ukrainians to “rid their homeland of an aggressor.
“The world needs to be strong and stand with Ukraine, giving them the military support, they need now and, help to rebuild their shattered country after the war.”
Andrew Bagshaw and Chris Parry disappeared a month ago, Reuters reported that forces from Russia’s private military firm Wagner Group had found the body of one of the pair.
It was not confirmed at the time who it was.
Tenby Powell, director of Kiwi K.A.R.E, spoke to the Herald shortly after Bagshaw’s disappearance, and praised his work during the Russian occupation.
Following the family’s press conference, Powell acknowledged their resources and believes they will continue to fight their son’s cause.
“I think they will use the influence they have and the connections they’ve got to enable the world to understand that this war has to stop at some stage,” he said.
In 2002, Sue Bagshaw was appointed a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit (CNZM) for services to youth health. In 2019, she was promoted to Dame Companion (DNZM). The same year, Phil was appointed a CNZM, also for services to youth health.
“Very soon, we will have people look at this and go ‘this is why we should leave it’,” Powell said.
Powell and Bagshaw crossed paths several times in Ukraine whilst serving.
“We were very different people, but the one thing we shared in was the immorality of this war - that’s what drove me to go,” he said.
“When you believe you have a set of skills and experience, you tend to want to go and do it. That was his philosophy of life, he was a man of action.”
Grzegorz Rybak was with Bagshaw, helping evacuate people and animals from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
He speaks English, Polish and Russian, and translated for Bagshaw as they worked to provide relief for the region.
He had told RNZ the humanitarian situation there was harrowing.
“We were delivering food, sanitary pads, encouraging people to evacuate,” he said.
Rybak said Bagshaw showed humanity at the highest level through the work he was doing in Bakhmut.
International photojournalist Laurel Chor documented Bagshaw and Parry’s exploits late last year as they worked in “dangerous and scary” contested areas destroyed by constant shelling, trying to rescue people.
“The evacuations can also be emotional; it’s always hard to watch people bid goodbye to family and friends who refuse to leave,” she said in a tribute post.
“Andrew, a scientist with a PhD, is quiet and reserved. But I saw how he stopped at nothing to aid those that others wouldn’t or couldn’t help.”
She saw the pair go on a “wild goose chase” on foot in Southern Bakhmut to find an elderly, wheelchair-bound woman, knocking on doors in places cars couldn’t go.
“Later, I was with Andrew again in Southern Bakhmut after dark, trying to convince a young woman and her father who refused to leave, despite the sound of small-arms fire getting louder and louder,” Chor said.
She described both Bagshaw and Parry as heroes.
Police will co-ordinate rescue operations via other SAR teams and helicopter providers.