Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was being paid by a private military company to fight in Ukraine when he died Monday, family members told CNN. “He wanted to go because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for and he wanted to be a part of it to limit it there, so that he would not come here, and that maybe our American soldiers should not be involved in that,” he told Cancel’s mother, Rebecca Cabrera. Cancel flew to Poland on March 12 and arrived in Ukraine the next day to fight with men from “all different countries,” Cabrera was quoted as saying. The circumstances of Cancel’s death were not immediately clear and officials who notified his family of his death had not recovered him, his mother explained. “They did not find his body,” Cabrera was quoted as saying. “The men who were with him are trying to grab his body or kill him, but we would like him to come back to us.” Cancel, a native of Orange County, New York, reportedly signed for the contract earlier this year to complete his full-time job as a penitentiary in Tennessee. Cancel was paid by a private military company to fight in Ukraine.AP/Emilio Morenatti He left behind a 7-month-old baby and a woman, according to the post. The State Department reportedly said it was “closely monitoring the situation” as it reiterated its recommendation that US citizens should avoid traveling to Ukraine “because of the active armed conflict and the expulsion of US citizens to Ukraine by Russian officials.” government. ” Cancel’s brother-in-law, Devin Tietze Jr. he told CNN that the military was “the guy who fights for the right, regardless of the outcome” and “always puts everyone in front of himself”. James Whitney Hill, an American citizen living in Ukraine and working as a teacher for 25 years, was killed last month. Facebook / Jimmy HIll “He was just a really thoughtful person,” Cabrera was quoted as saying. “He always kept everyone laughing and calm. “He was the man who got up when everyone else was standing behind.” Cancel was not the first American to die in the conflict. James Whitney Hill, 67, was killed in an attack on a bakery in Chernihiv last month. He lived in Ukraine and worked as a teacher for 25 years, family members told The Post. Former New York Times columnist Brent Renaud, 51, was fatally shot in the neck by Russian troops in Irpin a few days before Hill’s death. American photojournalist Juan Arredondo was also injured in that attack. More than 20,000 volunteers and veterans from 52 nations had registered to join the Ukrainian Army International Legion for foreign fighters seeking to defend the country from Russia’s unprovoked attack, CNN reported. On Thursday, a UK resident was killed in Ukraine and another is missing, British officials said. With Post cables
