A former US Marine who was hired to fight alongside Ukrainian soldiers against Russian invaders was killed this week.

Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, was being paid by a private military contracting company to fight in Ukraine when he died on Monday, family members told CNN.

“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, Rebecca Cabrera told the network.

Cancel flew to Poland on March 12 and arrived in Ukraine the next day to fight alongside men from “all different countries,” Cabrera reportedly said.

The circumstances of Cancel’s death were not immediately clear, and officials that notified his family of the death had not recovered him, his mom explained.

“They haven’t found his body,” Cabrera reportedly said. “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.”

Mirrored - Constance Favé