Ryan Routh, who authorities suspect was planning to attack former President Donald Trump while he was playing golf, was a staunch supporter of Ukraine and had visited the country.
On Routh’s time in Ukraine:
- Routh traveled to Ukraine after Russia’s large-scale invasion of the neighboring country more than two years ago, according to videos and images geotagged by CNN on Kiev’s Independence Square, as well as interviews with foreign press.
- He attended a rally in the square in support of Ukrainian troops on May 1, 2022, and visited the same spot about six weeks later, where a photo shows him standing next to a Ukrainian flag emblazoned with a call for international volunteers to support the war effort.
In an April 2022 AFP video from Kiev, Routh called Putin a “terrorist” and said “he needs to be eliminated.”
“We need everyone from all over the world to stop what they are doing and come here now to support the Ukrainians to end this war,” Routh said.
A representative of Ukraine’s foreign legion told CNN that Routh contacted them several times, but that he was never part of the military unit in which the foreign volunteers fight.
Routh has also expressed support for Ukraine on social media. In dozens of posts on X (formerly Twitter) in 2022, he said he was willing to die in the fight and that “we need to burn the Kremlin to the ground.”
He used Facebook to encourage foreigners to fight in the war, trying to enlist Afghan recruits in a flurry of posts starting in October 2023, posing as an unofficial Ukrainian government liaison.
This content was originally published in Man arrested after apparent attack on Trump is a fervent supporter of Ukraine on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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