Who is the man who allegedly tried to kill Trump?

2024-09-17 07:32:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

In the first months after Russia's complete invasion of Ukraine, Ryan Wesley Routh was often in Kiev. He talked to passers-by on the city's famous Khreschatyk street, addressed them in English, exchanged phone numbers and asked for help supporting the Ukrainian armed forces.

He was seen by volunteers going to Kiev as a kind of mascot for Ukraine's military, says Christian Lutz, a German who runs an aid organization called Phoenix and who met with Routh several times in 2022.

"The recruiting man with an American flag around his neck - that's what everyone referred to him as," Lutz told Radio Free Europe.

"He seemed to be a lone wolf. He had no colleagues or friends with him," he adds.

Routh, 58, is now suspected of possible assassination attempts on former US President Donald Trump, now the Republican Party's presidential candidate.

Routh was arrested by police in Florida on September 15 after Secret Service agents saw him pointing a rifle at Trump while he was playing golf at a club in West Palm Beach.

Routh was arrested after fleeing the scene, and agents found an AK-47 rifle, along with two backpacks and a GoPro camera at the scene, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told reporters.

While there is still no evidence linking Routh's efforts in Ukraine to the incident in Florida, his arrest has surprised people who crossed paths with him in Ukraine.

"What is happening? That can't be true," Lutz said when he heard the news of Routh's arrest.

Some of Ukraine's most prominent volunteer combat units quickly distanced themselves from Routhi, issuing statements denying all ties to him.

"Routh never served in the International Legion of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense in Ukraine. He has no connection with the unit," the International Legion - a unit made up of foreign volunteers - said in a Telegram post.

"The rumors circulating in certain media are not true," the group said. In April 2022, Routh appeared at a rally in Kiev in support of the Azov battalion - a controversial military unit revered by many in Ukraine for its combat prowess.

After several weeks of holding out in the port city of Mariupol against the Russian siege, the battalion's members surrendered and many were taken prisoner by the Russians. The family members, meanwhile, organized rallies, in an effort to put pressure on the release of their relatives.

According to Associated Press video from the scene, Routh was seen wearing a blue vest with a US flag on his back and holding a sign that read: "We cannot tolerate corruption and evil for another 50 + other years. End Russia for our children".

Routh also appeared in a video released in May 2022 by a Twitter account run by relatives of Azov members.

"We want to officially state that Ryan Wesley Routh has no connection to Azov and has had no connection to Azov," the group said in a post on X on September 16.

"The peaceful demonstration he participated in was open and anyone could join. He was accidentally caught on video filmed by protesters," the post said. Speaking to Radio Free Europe by phone from Germany, Lutz says he met Routh on his first trip to Kiev in June 2022.

"He seemed very communicative, extroverted and focused on his task of inducting foreigners into the Ukrainian army," says Lutz.

"Once we were traveling through Kiev, when he came up with the idea of ??looking for a factory for the construction of drones, a factory for the production of drones," he says.

Lutz says she later blocked him on social media because, she says, he was bombarding her with messages.

The persistence and public presence brought Routh the attention of several journalists, including those of Newsweek magazine, which published a short interview with him in the Romanian publication.

"This conflict is definitely black and white. This is about good versus evil," he was quoted as saying.

According to the Greensboro News & Record, a man the newspaper identified as Routh and about the same age was arrested by police in 2002 after he barricaded himself inside a building with an automatic weapon.

He later moved from North Carolina to Hawaii, according to some US reports.

His social media accounts, X and Facebook, have been closed since September 16, but archived posts show a mix of interests in US politics as well as the war in Ukraine.

In a series of posts on X in 2023, Routh claimed to be recruiting Afghan soldiers who were willing to serve in Taiwan or Haiti.

On LinkedIn, a profile under Routh's name matches many of his biographical details and says he is self-employed at a company in Hawaii called Camp Box Honolulu.

In a March 2023 post, the same LinkedIn profile posted two photos, undated. One shows Routh in front of the US Congress building in Washington and the other shows him in Independence Square in Kyiv. The photos bear the inscription: "In DC and in Kiev to provide soldiers for war." Routh also appears to have self-published a book on Amazon, called "Ukraine's Unwinnable War" — a finding first reported by the Associated Press.

In the entry published on Amazon's website, where the book remains for sale, Routh wrote about why he thinks protecting Ukraine is important.

"I suppose I should be clear, that on the current path Ukraine is not going to win, and it is imperative for the world that it wins. That's why this book is so important, for all of us to understand that losing is not an option and what we must do to win," Routh wrote./ Rel