Ukraine denies links to ‘delusional’ suspect in Trump assassination attempt
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Reported suspect Ryan Routh is said to be a staunch supporter of Ukraine who travelled there after Russia’s 2022 invasion.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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KYIV – Ukraine denied on Sept 16 links to a man accused of trying to assassinate former US president Donald Trump, after it emerged that the suspect is a supporter of Ukraine who has said he wanted to recruit foreign volunteers to fight there.
Trump was safe on Sept 15 after the Secret Service foiled what the Federal Bureau of Investigation called the second apparent assassination attempt on the Republican candidate for president
Media interviews and social media posts showed that the reported suspect Ryan Routh, 58, was a staunch supporter of Ukraine
Ukrainian officials said they have nothing to do with him, and accused Moscow of seizing on the link for propaganda purposes.
The Kremlin, for its part, implied there is a link
The apparent attempt on Trump’s life came just two months after he was grazed in the right ear
Both incidents highlight the challenge of keeping presidential candidates safe in a febrile campaign, with just over seven weeks to go before the Nov 5 election.
“I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes – It was certainly an interesting day!” Trump said on social media late on Sept 15, thanking Secret Service and police for keeping him safe.
Trump’s election opponent, Vice-President Kamala Harris, said on X: “Violence has no place in America.”
President Joe Biden directed his team to ensure the Secret Service has the resources it needs to ensure Trump’s safety.
Mr Routh, of Hawaii, was widely identified in US media as the suspect, although he was not immediately named by law enforcement.
Late on Sept 15, Secret Service and Homeland Security agents searched a home in Greensboro, North Carolina that a neighbour said belonged to Mr Routh.
Evidence of his support for Ukraine quickly emerged after the Sept 15 incident, including footage of him in 2022 speaking to Newsweek Romania in Kyiv, where he set up a tent with flags of countries representing volunteers who died in Ukraine.
He said he aimed to help recruit foreign fighters, having been rejected as too old to volunteer himself.
“A lot of the other conflicts are grey, but this conflict is definitely black and white. This is about good versus evil,” he said, showing emotion as he pleaded to the camera in a shirt with American flag symbols.
“If the governments will not send their official military, then we, civilians, have to pick up the torch.”
The New York Times reported that it also interviewed Mr Routh, in 2023, when Mr Routh said he was trying to recruit former fighters from Afghanistan to bring them to Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials said they have nothing to do with him.
Mr Routh had “never been part of, associated with, or linked to the International Legion in any capacity”, the unit that includes foreign volunteers for Ukrainian forces told Reuters.
A Legion official told CNN that Mr Routh sent e-mail offering to recruit foreign volunteers, but Ukraine’s military thought he was “delusional” and did not take the offers seriously.
“We didn’t even answer. There was nothing to answer to. He was never part of the Legion and didn’t cooperate with us in any way,” Mr Oleksandr Shaguri, an officer of the Foreigners Coordination Department of the Land Forces Command, told CNN.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was glad to hear Trump was safe, and that there was no place for violence in politics anywhere.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to link the apparent attempt to Washington’s support for Ukraine.
“It is not us who should be thinking. It is the US intelligence services who should be thinking. In any case, playing with fire has its consequences,” Mr Peskov said when asked about the attempted assassination.
The head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, Mr Andriy Kovalenko, said Moscow was “using another assassination attempt on Trump against Ukraine in the information field”.
“The enemy will launch a number of conspiracy theories about the ‘Ukrainian trace’. Of course, all of this is a lie.”
Profiles on X, Facebook and LinkedIn in the name of Mr Routh contained messages of support for Ukraine, as well as statements describing Trump as a threat to US democracy.
“@POTUS Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA... make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose,” read a post on X, tagging Mr Biden.
Reuters was not able to confirm that the accounts belonged to the suspect, and law enforcement agencies declined to comment. Public access to the Facebook and X profiles was removed hours after the Sept 15 incident.
Secret Service agents fired on a man spotted in bushes near the edge of Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course on Sept 15, a few hundred yards from where Trump was playing.
The suspect was arrested after fleeing the scene in a car, leaving behind two backpacks and an AK-47-style assault rifle.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said a Secret Service agent protecting Trump saw a rifle barrel poking out from bushes about 365m to 460m away from the former president as they cleared holes of potential threats.
Agents engaged the gunman, firing at least four shots.
Sheriff’s deputies in neighbouring Martin County apprehended the suspect on I-95 about 65km from the golf course.
Ms Harris has repeatedly said a second Trump term would threaten US democracy and has vowed unwavering support for Ukraine in its struggle against Russia.
Trump, asked during a debate last week
