American Willy Joseph Cancel killed fighting alongside Ukraine's forces, family says: "He believed in what Ukraine was fighting for"

A U.S. Marine veteran was killed fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in the war with Russia, his relatives told news outlets in the first known death of a U.S. citizen fighting in Ukraine. Rebecca Cabrera told CNN her son, Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was killed Monday while working for a military contracting company that sent him to Ukraine.

Cabrera said her son was working as a corrections officer in Tennessee and had signed up to work with the private military contractor shortly before fighting began in Ukraine in late February. She told CNN he agreed to go to Ukraine.

"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," she said.