An American citizen, Willy Jospeh Cancel, was killed fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in Ukraine; this was confirmed by Cancel's family while interviewing CNN.
His mother, Rebecca Cabrera, gave an interview to CNN in which she said that Willy was of 22 years. He worked with a private military contracting company and was killed this Monday. She stated that the company sent him to Ukraine and was paid to fight there.
According to his mother, he had signed up to work for the private military, and the contract was on top of his full-time job as a corrections officer in Tennesse shortly before the war in Ukraine had started. But as soon as the war began, the company told him that they were searching for contractors to fight in Ukraine, and Willy had agreed to go there and fight.
She said that "He wanted to go over because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for, and he wanted to be a part of it to contain in there, so it didn't come here, and that maybe our American soldiers wouldn't have to be involved in it.
She has also said that "they haven't found his body" and "they are trying, the men that were with him, it was either grab his body or get killed, but we would love for him
to come back to us."
A state department official said they are "aware of these reports and are closely monitoring the situation. Due to privacy considerations, we are not going to comment further; we once again reiterate to US citizens should not travel to Ukraine due to active armed conflict and singling out of US citizens in Ukraine by the Russian government security officials and that US citizens in Ukraine should depart immediately if it is safe to do so, using any commercial or other privately available transportation options."