First American Killed While Fighting in Ukraine

Willy Joseph Cancel, a military contractor and U.S. Marine, has been killed while fighting in Ukraine, according to his family.

It's being reported that a former U.S. Marine, Willy Joseph Cancel, was killed fighting for Ukraine.

He was just 22. He leaves behind a wife and 7-month-old daughter.

RIP. pic.twitter.com/fuFnXGadwq

— Clint Ehrlich (@ClintEhrlich) April 29, 2022

Cancel’s family members told CNN that the 22-year-old lost his life on Monday as he fought to defend Ukraine.

Rebecca Cabrera, Cancel’s mother, said that her son had been working as a corrections officer when he signed on to work for a private military contractor. When the Ukraine war erupted, Cancel accepted a deployment from the contractor to go join the fight, a service for which he received compensation. He arrived in Ukraine in early March.

Cabrera said she was told that Cancel’s body had yet to be recovered. “They are trying, the men that were with him, but it was either grab his body or get killed, but we would love for him to come back to us,” she said.

Cancel was a native of Orange County, N.Y., and had been living in Tennessee when he left to join the effort to repel the Russian invasion of Ukraine. His brother-in-law, Devin Tietze, Jr., described Cancel as “the type to fight for what’s right, regardless of the outcome.” He also said Cancel “believed wholeheartedly this shouldn’t have happened, and he wanted to go help the people in Ukraine.”

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Cancel’s mother said, “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 it there so it didn’t come here, and that maybe our American soldiers wouldn’t have to be involved in it.”

May God bless Willy Joseph Cancel and grant his soul rest, and watch over the family he left behind. And we hope and pray that his goal — to contain the fighting so that American soldiers wouldn’t get caught up in it — will be realized, and his sacrifice will have served his purpose.