A former U.S. Marine who signed up to fight against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was killed on Monday, his family says.

Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was hired by a private contracting company to fight against Russia. He flew to Poland on March 12th and entered Ukraine the next day to wage battle alongside fighters from numerous countries around the world.

“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,” Cancel’s mother told CNN.

“They haven’t found his body. 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 added.

The exact circumstances of his death are still not clear.

Cancel was a native of Orange County in New York and more recently worked as a corrections officer in Tennessee. He leaves behind a wife and and 7-month-old baby.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)