Substitute while the actions of the article are loading
Willie Joseph Cancel, a U.S. citizen and U.S. Marine veteran fighting in Ukraine, was killed during the Russian invasion this week, according to his family. He was 22.
Cancel, who left for Ukraine by force from a private contract military company, died Monday as part of an international brigade of soldiers fighting Russia, his mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN. Cancel, whose mother said he had been in Ukraine since last month, is believed to be the first known American to be killed in action in Ukraine.
“He wanted to cross because he believed in what Ukraine was fighting for, and he wanted to be part of it to keep him there so that he wouldn’t come here and that maybe our American soldiers wouldn’t have to take part in him, “Cabrera said.
Cancelli’s wife, Brittany, who has been with him for nearly three years, confirmed his death to Fox News, saying: “My husband really died in Ukraine. She told ABC News that Chancellor, a Kentucky detainee who “is eager to volunteer” to help Ukraine. He leaves behind a 7-month-old son, Anthony, according to a GoFundMe fundraising campaign for the Cancel family.
“My husband was very brave and a hero,” she said. “I did not expect to remain a widow at the age of 23 or our son to be left without a father.
Cancel’s father, Willie Cancel Jr., told The Washington Post that his son “just wanted to help.”
“I’m not going to lie, I tried to tell him, ‘Hey, think about it,'” the father said. “He thought people needed help.
The circumstances surrounding Cancel’s work in Ukraine were still unclear as of Friday. The Post could not independently confirm that he was employed by a private military company. Asked at a news conference on Friday if the Department of Defense is hiring contractors in Ukraine at the moment, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said: “No, I don’t know.
His father said the family still did not know how his son died or where he was in Ukraine at the time.
“Honestly, we have no idea,” said Cancel Jr.
A State Department official confirmed to The Post that the agency was “aware of these reports and is closely monitoring the situation.”
“For privacy reasons, we have no further comments,” the official said. “We reaffirm that American citizens should not travel to Ukraine due to the active armed conflict and the separation of American citizens in Ukraine from Russian government security officials, and that US citizens in Ukraine should leave immediately if it is safe to do so. using any commercial or other private ground transportation options. “
Cancel’s death was announced hours after Ukraine said five Russian rockets shook the capital Kyiv during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Russian authorities have confirmed that he struck the city, saying on Friday that he had destroyed a weapons factory.
In the United States, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told lawmakers on Thursday that the world had changed dramatically and expressed support for Finland and Sweden’s accession to NATO. Earlier on Thursday, President Biden asked Congress to approve a $ 33 billion military and humanitarian aid package for the country.
Rockets hit Kyiv during a visit by the UN chief; Russia is making slow progress in the east
At least three other US citizens have been killed in Ukraine since the invasion. Serge Zevlever, a 62-year-old Ukrainian American living in St. Louis who helped hundreds of Ukrainian children with medical needs be adopted into American families, was killed by a Russian sniper near Kyiv just days after the invasion, the ship St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Award-winning American journalist Brent Reno, 50, was fatally shot while reporting outside Kyiv on March 13. Days later, 68-year-old James Whitney Hill was killed while trying to get food for himself, his partner and many other sick patients in the Chernihiv region Hospital in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv.
American killed in Ukraine trying to feed his sick partner and others in hospital, says nurse
The International Legion, a special unit of foreign fighters set up by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry that wants to join the fight against Russia, has attracted the interest of more than 20,000 volunteers and veterans from more than 50 countries in early March, Brig. This was stated for the Associated Press by the Commander of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry, General Kirilo Budanov.
The war continues to be dangerous for people from all over the world who volunteer or help in humanitarian efforts. Russian forces have captured two British volunteers while trying to help three people leave Ukraine, according to a British-based non-profit organization. Dominique Byrne, co-founder of the Presidium Network, a relief group working in Ukraine, told the BBC that the men acted independently, despite being in contact with his aid group. The men, identified by Byrne to the Associated Press as Paul Yuri and Dylan Healy, evacuated a woman and two children from a village south of Zaporozhye, he said, and were last heard from at a checkpoint on Monday.
A 25-year-old Dane who is voluntarily fighting for Ukraine was also killed this week in Nikolaev, according to Danish TV2.
Cancel joined the Marine Corps in December 2017 as an infantry shooter, serving in the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, a unit in Camp Lejeune, NC. His awards show he has spent some time at sea and in South Korea, said Major Jim Stenger, a spokesman for the service.
However, on 31 August 2020, Cancel was convicted of violating the rule of law and sentenced to 154 days in prison, demotion of corporal rank and dismissal for misconduct. The case stems from the cancellation of the carrying of weapons at the base, said an official familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. Cancel left the service in November.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity under basic rules set by the Pentagon, said Friday that the Department of Defense had no information about Cancel or his actions in Ukraine, but offered his condolences to his family.
The official said the Pentagon continued to urge Americans not to go to Ukraine, “no matter how altruistic they are,” citing the dangers.
Canceller Jr. said his son “didn’t tell me too much” about traveling to Ukraine to fight in the war.
“It was just going,” the father told The Post. “[He] it remained quite quiet. “
Days after his death, Cancelle’s family members are now begging for his body to be found and returned to the United States.
“The men who were with him are trying,” Cabrera told CNN, “but they had to either catch his body or be killed, but we would like him to come back to us.”
Brittany Cancel told Fox that her husband dreamed of one day becoming a police officer or a firefighter in New York. Now she hopes that she, their relatives and the young son can say goodbye.
“All I want is for him to go home and bury him in the proper way he deserves,” she said.
The Cancel family wrote in the online fundraiser that they were “just crazy and … have no idea how to proceed.” They wondered how Anthony would grow up without his father, whom they described as “brave and selfless and whose life was meaninglessly lost.”
“As long as he grows up, knowing that his father died a hero, we know it won’t be easy,” the family wrote. “No parent should bury their child and no child should grow up without a parent.”
Add Comment