Who is the man who allegedly tried to kill Trump?

In the first months after Ukraine's full invasion by Russia, Ryan Wesley Routh was often in Kiev. He spoke to passersby on the famous street of the city “Khreschatyk”, addressed them in English, exchanged telephone numbers, and sought help to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

It was seen by volunteers going to Kiev as a kind of nosque for the Ukrainian Army, says Christian Lutz, a German who heads a relief organization called Phoenix and who met Routhhi several times in 2022.

“Burri recruiter with an American flag around his neck thus referred to the entire”, Lutz tells Radio Free Europe.

He seemed to be a lone wolf. There were no colleagues or friends with him”, he adds.

Routh, 58, is now suspected of possible attempts to kill former US President Donald Trump, now Republican Party candidate for president.

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

Routh was arrested after leaving the scene, and agents found a gun “AK-47<18x1>, along with two backpacks and a GoPro camera at the scene, County Sheriff Palm Bic, Ric Bradshaw told reporters.

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

“What's happening? This cannot be true”, Lutz said when he heard news of Routh's arrest.

Some of Ukraine's best-known volunteer units were quickly distanced from Routhi, issuing statements that denied all ties with him.

“Ruth has never served in the International Legion of the Ministry of Defence's Chief Intelligence Directorate in Ukraine. It has no connection with the” unit, the International Legion said, a unit consisting of foreign volunteers, in a post in the telegram.

“The rumours that circulate 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 but highly honored military unit in Ukraine for its fighting skills.

After weeks of resistance to the port city of Marioupolis against the Russian siege, battalion members surrendered and many were taken captive by Russia. Family members, meanwhile, organized rallies in an effort to pressure the release of their relatives.

According to an Associated Press video from the site, Routh was seen wearing a blue vest, with a US flag on his back and a banner writing: “We cannot tolerate corruption and evil for another 50+ years. End Russia for our children”

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

“We wanted to state formally that Ryan Wesley Routh has no connection with Azov and that there was no connection to Azovin”, the group said in an X post on September 16th.

The peaceful demonstrate he participated in was open and anyone could join. He was accidentally captured in the video film filmed by protesters”, said in that post.

Speaking to Radio Free Europe by phone from Germany, Lutz says he met with Routhi on his first trip to Kiev in June 2022.

I looked very communicative, extrovert and focused on his duty to introduce foreigners into the Ukrainian army”, Lutz says.

We were once traveling through Kiev, when it came up with the idea to look for a plant to build drones, a plant for the production of drones”, he says.

Lutz says that, later, he blocked it into social media, because, as he says, he was bombarding it with messages.

Persistence and public presence brought Routh the attention of several journalists, including Newsweek magazine, who published a brief interview with him in Romanian publishing.

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

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

He later moved from North Carolina to Havana, according to reports in the United States.

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

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

At the LinkedIn network, a profile under Routh's name coincides with many of its biographical details, and it says he is self-employed at an Havana company called Camp Box Honolulu.

In a March 2023 post, the same account in LinkedIn released two photos without date. One looks like Routh in front of the U.S. Congress building in Washington and the other he's at the Independence Square in Kiev. Photos bear inscription: “in DC and Kiev to provide soldiers for war”.

Routh, too, seems to have published a book on Amazon itself, called “Ukraine's unsuccessful fight” a finding this first reported by the Associated Press.

At the entrance published on the Amazon website, where the book remains for sale, Routh wrote why he thinks Ukrainian protection is important.

I suppose I should be clear, that on the current road Ukraine will not win, and it is necessary for the world to win it. That's why this book is so important, for all of us to understand that loss is not an option and what we have to do to earn”, Routh wrote. /Radio Europe Free