Why Trump’s second assassination attempt has ramifications for war in Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine — The shots fired by the Secret Service near former President Donald Trump at a Florida golf course Sunday are ringing out 5,000 miles away — in the Russia-Ukraine war.

After what officials called the second assassination attempt on Trump in three months, a man named Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was taken into custody and charged.

Routh had already been extensively profiled in the Western media as an ardent supporter of Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s ongoing invasion. He had traveled to Ukraine wanting to fight but had said in media interviews that he had turned to recruitment after being rejected by its military because he was too old and had no battlefield experience.

Ukraine sought Monday to distance itself from Routh, with the country’s international legion — the military unit that includes foreign volunteers — saying it had nothing to do with him. Meanwhile, officials in the United States were yet to lay out any possible motive.

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Russia quickly sought to weaponize his support for Ukraine, an unwelcome development for Kyiv right at the moment both American support and the fight on the battlefield appear to hang in the balance.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, says she will continue President Joe Biden’s backing of Kyiv, Trump, the GOP nominee, has been more ambiguous — twice refusing to say whether he wanted the U.S. ally to win the war at last week’s debate. 

Many Ukrainians had already feared an election win for him would spell disaster for their war effort, which is heavily reliant on Washington.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted to X early Monday that he was “glad to hear that @realDonaldTrump is safe and unharmed. My best wishes to him and his family.”

“It’s good that the suspect in the assassination attempt was apprehended quickly,” he wrote. “This is our principle: The rule of law is paramount and political violence has no place anywhere in the world. We sincerely hope that everyone remains safe.”

But Moscow was already stirring the pot.

“I wonder what would happen if it turned out that the failed new Trump shooter Routh, who recruited mercenaries for the Ukrainian army, was himself hired by the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev for this assassination attempt?” Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s ex-president and current deputy chairman of the Security Council, wrote on X. There has been no evidence for that suggestion.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “it is not us who should think about it, it is the U.S. special services who should think about it. In any case, playing with fire has its consequences. Therefore, first of all, this should be a great concern and a headache for the U.S. special services.”

Legion rejects links

Routh was the self-appointed director of an unofficial group called the International Volunteer Center, and was also using his Facebook to try to conscript Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban in 2021 to fight for Kyiv against Moscow, encouraging would-be recruits who speak English to send him their details via WhatsApp.

“Volunteering in Ukraine is the most honorable and noble sacrifice, and every human on the planet should be here for freedom and human rights,” Routh’s military recruitment website read. “If you do not have military experience, you must sell yourself that you are capable.”

In May 2022, a GoFundMe page was set up on his behalf by Kathleen Shaffer, who said she was his fiancée. The page, which had raised more than $1,800 when it was removed Sunday, was aimed at helping his volunteer and recruitment drive in Ukraine.

However none of these efforts were linked to the Ukrainian military, which had rejected his advances and appears to have treated his enthusiasm with suspicion. In interviews, Routh bemoaned what he called Ukraine’s attitude toward his overtures.Oleksandr Shahuri, a spokesman for Ukraine’s International Legion, told NBC News that Routh never served in the legion and that it had no other record of any interaction with him. 

“We would like to clarify that Ryan Wesley Routh has never been part of, associated with, or linked to the International Legion in any capacity. Any claims or suggestions indicating otherwise are entirely inaccurate,” the legion said in a separate email statement.

“It is important to note that military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine should refrain from engaging in discussions regarding U.S. domestic politics or its international implications. We fully respect and welcome the decisions made by the American people in choosing their elected officials,” it added. 

The Ukrainian government and military did not immediately respond to NBC News’ requests for comment.

Routh said on social media that he supported Trump in 2016 but by 2020 had soured on the Republican, writing “I will be glad when you gone [sic]” in June that year. Around the same time, he also tweeted in support of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and then-Democrat-turned-independent Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, while saying that Biden “stands for nothing.”

Far beyond simply repelling Russia’s invasion, he said in 2022 that “we do not stop until Putin is dead and Moscow is a pile of rubble,” in a post on X, calling for the United States to bolster its nuclear arsenal.

He also extended an open invite to North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un in 2020 to come “to Hawaii for vacation,” saying that “it would be an honor to have you at our beaches. I an a leader here and can arrange the whole trip. Please come.”

There are other aspects of his online profile that have not yet been explained. On his WhatsApp bio, it says, “We each need to help the Chinese,” without further explanation.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, he was a vocal presence both on social media and in Kyiv’s Maidan Square, where he pitched a tent and erected billboards attempting to rally volunteers. Photos online showed him with dyed blue and blond hair — the colors of Ukraine’s flag — swaddled in a Star Spangled Banner neckerchief and a bulletproof vest.

That summer, NBC News spoke briefly with Routh, who said in a message that the West’s “limited response” to Ukraine’s war was “an indictment of the entire human race” and “extremely disappointing.” There was never any formal interview, nor inclusion of Routh’s comments in NBC News’ coverage of the war.

This is a highly charged issue.

Ukraine would not have been able to put up such a staunch defense against Russia without tens of billions of dollars in aid from the United States and other Western powers.

But it has been pushing its backers to do more, and there is deep uncertainty and anxiety about the path Trump would take should he win — concerns in Kyiv that will only have been fueled by Sunday’s events.

Daryna Mayer reported from Kyiv, and Alex Smith and Caroline Radnofsky from London.