Opinion: Dominic Abelen’s family have not given up hope that they will get their son and brother home.
And of course, they should never give up hope. They’re family, that’s what you do.
But it wasn’t looking good. Everything we heard from the government - on and off the record, everything we heard from soldiers on the frontline who were there when Dominic was killed, everything we heard from Kiwis trying to help get Dominic home - everything painted a bleak and pessimistic picture.
The Russians had him, they may never identify him, they may never find him, they may never give him back.
That was until last week.
Now I don’t dare raise hopes because the disappointment to the family would be unfathomable if he doesn’t make it back but they already have hope and for the first time since his body was taken by Russians from the battlefield, I think that hope could maybe, just maybe, hopefully, be realised.
When the Donetsk People’s Republic announced, and then delivered on a promise, to return US citizen Joshua Jones’ body to Ukraine, everything changed.
This is an enormous development for Ukraine/Russia diplomacy.
Foreign nationals fighting in Ukraine aren’t recognised by Russia as combatants, they are considered mercenaries and therefore Russia does not believe international humanitarian laws apply. They believe they’re stripped of any immunity and the Geneva Convention doesn’t apply, which dictates that states taking part in a war must undertake a careful examination of the bodies with a view to confirming death, establishing identity and enabling a report to be made.
The return of Jones’ body was a seachange moment.
It was negotiated by two Ukrainian lawmakers who were determined to see Jones - who was known as Tactical Jesus and seen as a hero by the Ukrainian soldiers he fought alongside - to see him returned to his family.
Listen to the analysis of one of CNN’s top journalists Clarissa Ward, she was the only reporter allowed into no man's land in Zaporizhzhia to cover the return of Joshua’s body, here she is talking to Jake Tapper:
So this is huge. And a huge wake-up call for our complacent government who put the recovery of Dominic’s body in the too-hard basket.
A bit like the Iranian travel bloggers, you may not support the fact they travelled to a dangerous country, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have an obligation as a country to do everything we can to get them home.
I’m much more supportive of Dominic’s motives than some Instagram influencers, I could never do what he did, but admire the fact he believed so passionately that this was a war between good and evil and that good must triumph. He went in eyes wide open, he knew the risks and he knew he might die.
He did something most of us wouldn’t or couldn’t do.
The least we can do as a country is pull out all the stops to get him home - and the opportunity has finally presented itself no thanks to our government’s efforts.
But now, they can step up.
Leave no man behind.
