New Zealander Andrew Bagshaw is missing in Ukraine, his parents say.

“Andrew is a very intelligent, independently-minded person, who went there as a volunteer to assist the people of Ukraine, believing it to be the morally right thing to do,” Philip and Susan Bagshaw said in a statement.

Andrew was born in the United Kingdom. Philip and Susan said they were very grateful for all the agencies from both London and New Zealand, who were working so hard to find him.

They were particularly grateful to Kiwi K.A.R.E, an NGO working with volunteers in Ukraine.

Andrew’s parents love him dearly and are immensely proud of all the work he has been doing delivering food and medicines and assisting elderly people to move from near the battlefront of the war, the statement said.

Andrew Bagshaw's car after a shell landed next to it in September. Photo / Supplied

Kiwi K.A.R.E director Tenby Powell - a former solider and mayor of Tauranga - praised Bagshaw’s incredible work in helping Ukrainian citizens.”Andrew has been doing incredible work.

He is going to areas which have been or were under occupation, helping elderly people evacuate from those zones.”He has been doing wonderful work under very difficult and challenging circumstances.”

Powell said he could not comment any further on the situation at this stage, he wanted to respect the parents’ wishes for privacy.

Bagshaw spoke to the Herald in October last year, saying he travelled to the war-torn country because he was between jobs and watching the conflict on TV.

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”I thought to myself, these people are going through hell, and I’m here not being able to do anything.”

So the 47-year-old bought a one-way ticket to Poland and arrived in Ukraine in April.

He was a volunteer driver working mostly in the Donbas region evacuating civilians from under heavy shellfire.

He was just one of many Kiwis working on the ground in Ukraine, in various capacities - delivering aid, evacuating civilians and helping remove mines and explosive debris from Ukrainian cities.

His experience has not been without some close shaves.

He recalls driving in the Donbas region, when they had to abandon their car on the side of the road because it broke down

After finding alternative transport, they returned the next day to retrieve the vehicle.

”But a shell had landed right next to it overnight, and the whole car had been ripped apart, the windscreen was all smashed up and the tyres were shredded.

”Had he and his team stayed with the car, they would have been torn apart.

The Bagshaws are a well-known family in Christchurch.

Dame Sue Bagshaw is also a doctor and worked in the youth health sector for 30 years.

For many years she also worked as a senior lecturer in pediatrics at the University of Otago in Christchurch, and a contract educator and Trustee for the Collaborative for Research and Training in Youth Health and Development, which she founded.

Dame Sue has been President of the New Zealand Association for Adolescent Health and Development and President of the International Association of Adolescent Health, and was a founding member and key driver of the Society of Youth Health Professionals Aotearoa.

And she established the 198 Youth One Stop Shop in 1995 and worked there as a primary care youth health specialist until its closure in 2010.

Following the 2011 the Christchurch earthquakes, she collaborated with Action Works to bring together 16 youth organisations to form the first youth hub.

Philip Bagshaw, a former surgeon, helped establish the Canterbury Charity Hospital, chaired its Trust, and remains a volunteer specialist General Surgeon.

In the past he has been appointed to the Canterbury District Health Board and several Ministry of Health committees and has chaired the New Zealand branch of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and the Council of Medical Colleges in New Zealand.

Philip Bagshaw also helped found the Academy of Endosurgery Trust and to initiate the internationally recognised Laparoscopic Colorectal Cancer Study.

He was formerly the President of the New Zealand Society of Gastroenterology and chaired the New Zealand Liver Transplant Advisory Group for 15 years.