“We continue to urge Americans not to travel to Ukraine,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told CNN, calling the news “heartbreaking” and offering his support to the family of the deceased.
“This is a continuous war zone, (…) it is not a place where Americans should go,” he reiterated.
Rebecca Cabrera said her son “wanted to go there because he believed in what is being fought for in Ukraine, and he wanted to be a part of it to contain (the threat) there and not let it get here.”
Cancel is survived by his wife and a seven-month-old son, according to the US press. Her wife, Brittany, confirmed her husband’s death in a statement sent to various media outlets, in which she highlighted the “courage” of Willy Cancel, calling him a “hero.”
Cancel was a former Marine who joined a private paramilitary company and volunteered to travel to Ukraine.
Both men were fighting as volunteers alongside the Ukrainian army, according to British media.
Shortly after Russia invaded his country on February 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the formation of an “international legion” of foreign volunteers to help defend Ukraine.
In early March, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba mentioned the number of some 20,000 foreign volunteers who had joined his country’s forces to fight in the war.