Ukrainian soldier near KharkovMOSCOW, May 2Americans who have undergone military training are participating in the fighting in Ukraine, the Associated Press reports. On Thursday, the media reported the death in Ukraine of 22-year-old American Willy Joseph Cancel. According to his mother, he was sent there in the first half of March by a private military company (PMC) and served alongside citizens from other countries. According to her, her son died on Monday and his body was not found. As CNN reported, the man, whose main job was to work as a warden in a prison in Tennessee, left behind a wife and a seven-month-old child. The Pentagon on Friday said it did not know about the presence of military personnel in Ukraine who would have a contract with the US defense department.A British mercenary warned the British against fighting in Ukraine «It is believed that an unspecified number of other Americans, many of whom have received military training, are in the country (Ukraine — ed.), Fighting against Russian troops along with Ukrainians and volunteers from other countries,» Harrison Yosefovich, a former American military officer and ex-Chicago police officer, told the agency that he heads the Task Force Yankee group operating in Ukraine. According to him, «thousands of volunteers from the United States and other countries» are now in the country. Yozefovich added that the group he leads «sent a large number of volunteers to various positions throughout Ukraine, of which about 40 were for combat.» Earlier, a Foreign Ministry spokesman Russian Federation Maria Zakharova announced about 7,000 mercenaries from more than 60 countries who arrived in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian special operation. According to her, there are citizens of Poland, the USA, Canada, Romania, Great Britain, Georgia among them. military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass.
