A 22-year-old US Navy veteran was killed after being hired to fight for Ukraine, according to reports.

• A US Navy veteran has died while fighting in Ukraine, his family said. CNN Y foxnews.

• CNN reported that Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was killed on Monday. He had a wife and a young son.

• Cancel’s mother said he signed up to fight in Ukraine in March and was paid during his time there.

A 22-year-old US citizen was killed in Ukraine after being hired to fight for the nation. CNN reported on Thursdayciting an interview with the man’s family.

Willy Joseph Cancel, a US Navy veteran, was paid by a private military contracting company to participate in combat in Ukraine, Cancel’s mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told the outlet.

CNN reported that Cancel was killed on Monday. He said that his mother had been told that his son’s body had not yet been recovered.

Cabrera told CNN that Cancel had a full-time job as a corrections officer in Tennessee and took a part-time job with the military company before the war in Ukraine began.

When contractors were sought to fight in Ukraine, Cancel agreed to go, according to the outlet. His mother said she flew to Poland on March 12 and crossed into Ukraine shortly after.

“He wanted to go because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for, and he wanted to be a part of that to contain it there so it wouldn’t come here and maybe our American soldiers didn’t have to be involved.” that,” Cabrera said, according to CNN.

Cancel is survived by his wife and 7-month-old son. Her widow, Brittany Cancel, told Fox News that her husband’s “main mission in life” was to help others, which motivated him to travel to Ukraine.

“My husband was very brave and a hero,” she said. by FoxNews. “I didn’t expect to be a widow at 23 or for our son to be left without a father. All I want is for him to come home and give him the proper burial he deserves.”

A State Department official told CNN that he was “aware of these reports” and was “closely monitoring the situation.”

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“We reiterate once again that US citizens should not travel to Ukraine due to the active armed conflict and the targeting of US citizens in Ukraine by Russian government security officials, and that US citizens in Ukraine should depart immediately if necessary. safe to do it.” using any commercial or private ground transportation option available,” the official was quoted as saying.

The State Department did not immediately respond to an Insider request for comment.

The previous Thursday, the The UK Foreign Office confirmed a British citizen he had been killed while fighting in the Ukraine and said he was urgently seeking information about another British national who had disappeared there.

The British man killed is believed to be a 36-year-old former British soldier who served in the Royal Logistic Corps.

Ukraine has called for foreign volunteers to travel to Ukraine to help fight the Russian invaders, forming a foreign legion at the end of February. a ukrainian official he told CNN by early March that more than 20,000 people from more than 50 countries had joined the force.

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