US Warns Citizens Against Fighting in Ukraine

The Pentagon is seen from the air in Washington, US, March 3, 2022, more than a week after Russia invaded Ukraine. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
The Pentagon is seen from the air in Washington, US, March 3, 2022, more than a week after Russia invaded Ukraine. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
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US Warns Citizens Against Fighting in Ukraine

The Pentagon is seen from the air in Washington, US, March 3, 2022, more than a week after Russia invaded Ukraine. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo
The Pentagon is seen from the air in Washington, US, March 3, 2022, more than a week after Russia invaded Ukraine. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

The US Defense Department warned Americans on Friday against going to Ukraine to join the fight against Russia’s invasion after a former marine was killed.

“We continue to urge Americans not to go to Ukraine... this is an active war zone, this is not the place to be traveling to,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told CNN the day after reports emerged of the death of Willy Joseph Cancel.

Cancel’s mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN her 22-year-old son was killed on Monday in Ukraine while working with a private military contractor, having traveled there in mid-March.

She said her son’s body had not yet been recovered. He is survived by his wife and their child, who is not yet one-year-old, AFP reported.

His wife, Brittany Cancel, told ABC News that her husband “was eager to volunteer” to go to Ukraine and “went there wanting to help people.”

Kirby expressed condolences for Cancel’s family and said he understood his “altruistic motives,” while underscoring that there are ways to support Ukraine “in a safe, effective way.”

He added that the Pentagon did not have information on how Cancel was killed.

Early after Russia’s invasion, launched on February 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for foreigners to volunteer to fight for his country.

In March, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said tens of thousands of volunteers from dozens of countries had answered the call.

London on Thursday reported what was believed to be the first death of a Briton fighting in the conflict. Another Briton is also missing.



Pope Francis Calls Trump’s Plans of Mass Deportation of Immigrants a ‘Disgrace’ 

A handout picture provided by the Vatican Media shows Pope Francis leading the Angelus prayer, traditional Sunday's prayer, from the window of his office overlooking Saint Peter's Square, in Vatican City, 19 January 2025. (Vatican Media Handout/EPA)
A handout picture provided by the Vatican Media shows Pope Francis leading the Angelus prayer, traditional Sunday's prayer, from the window of his office overlooking Saint Peter's Square, in Vatican City, 19 January 2025. (Vatican Media Handout/EPA)
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Pope Francis Calls Trump’s Plans of Mass Deportation of Immigrants a ‘Disgrace’ 

A handout picture provided by the Vatican Media shows Pope Francis leading the Angelus prayer, traditional Sunday's prayer, from the window of his office overlooking Saint Peter's Square, in Vatican City, 19 January 2025. (Vatican Media Handout/EPA)
A handout picture provided by the Vatican Media shows Pope Francis leading the Angelus prayer, traditional Sunday's prayer, from the window of his office overlooking Saint Peter's Square, in Vatican City, 19 January 2025. (Vatican Media Handout/EPA)

Pope Francis said Donald Trump’s plans to impose mass deportations of immigrants would be a “disgrace,” as he weighed in on the incoming US president’s pledges nearly a decade after calling him “not Christian” for wanting to build a wall along the US-Mexican border.

History’s first Latin American pope was asked about the Trump administration pledges of deportations during an appearance Sunday night on a popular Italian talk show, Che Tempo Che Fa.

“If true, this will be a disgrace, because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing pay the bill” for the problem, Francis said. “This won’t do! This is not the way to solve things. That’s not how things are resolved.”

Trump, who is being sworn in on Monday, made mass deportations a signature issue of his campaign and has promised a raft of first-day orders to remake immigration policy.

During his first campaign for the presidency, in 2016, Francis was asked about Trump’s plans to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. Speaking after he celebrated Mass along the border, Francis famously said anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants is “not Christian.”

Many US bishops have firmly opposed Trump’s deportation plan, with the incoming archbishop of Washington DC, Cardinal Robert McElroy, saying such policies were “incompatible with Catholic doctrine.” It was a reference to the Biblical call to “welcome the stranger.”

Another cardinal close to Francis, Chicago Cardinal Blasé Cupich, said the reports of mass deportations targeting the Chicago area “are not only profoundly disturbing but also wound us deeply.”

In a statement delivered from the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City on Sunday, Cupich said governments have the responsibility to protect borders and communities.

“But we also are committed to defending the rights of all people, and protecting their human dignity,” according to the text of his statement.

Francis, who grew up in Argentina in a family of Italian immigrants, has long prioritized the plight of migrants and called for governments to welcome, protect and integrate them, within their means. He has said the dignity and rights of migrants trump any national security concerns.