Dane Partridge, a U.S. Army veteran, died while battling Russian forces in Ukraine.
The State Department confirmed an American citizen was killed in the Donbas region of Ukraine earlier this month but did not provide any details.
"We are in touch with the family and are providing all appropriate assistance," a State Department spokesperson said.
However, Partridge's sister, Jenny Partridge Corry, told ABC News that he was the man who died. And Idaho News 6 said he was from Rexburg, Idaho.
According to ABC News, Partridge leaves behind five children. The network news said he had been in Ukraine since April.
"He had a spiritual conviction that he couldn't deny and so he followed it," Corry said. "He went valiantly."
Asked what he said about the fighting conditions in Ukraine, Corry told ABC: "The only thing he communicated was the fighting conditions in Ukraine were more than he had seen in Iraq. He wanted us to not worry about him, so he kept much of the conversation on us at home. He kept the worry to himself. He wanted us to know he loved us, and it was all for us."
She was also asked for her reaction when he told the family he wanted to go to Ukraine and fight.
"It made sense," Corry said. "Ever since he was as little boy he was always running around…playing Army guy. He was born to fight. It just fit his personality. And it almost seemed to be what the measure of his creation was all about."
Regarding his death, she said: "It was communicated to me that he and his men were creating trenches and that they ended up in a fire fight with Russians. The Russians were equipped with a tank. Within the fire fight there was some shrapnel that was discharged and it hit many of the men, but Dane sustained the worst of the injuries."
The New York Post noted a Facebook post from Matt Reeves, identified as Partridge's commanding officer from 2007-2009.
"I wanted to tell him so badly not to go," Reeves wrote. "He wasn't Ukrainian, he didn't have family from there, he was just a guy from Idaho. I wanted to tell him that his family, his friends, and his old battle buddies needed him here, safe.
"But he felt so strongly about it that he went. And there's no possible way to talk someone out of something like that. Nor can you even approach them about it. He felt that same call to defend the Ukrainian people as he did for the Iraqi people. Maybe he's a better man than me for that."
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