The man who allegedly planned to kill US presidential candidate Donald Trump passed away “most” Over the past three years, Ukraine has been trying to recruit foreign fighters for kyiv, Time magazine reported. reportedquoting his private messages.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was arrested Sunday after being spotted by the U.S. Secret Service at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Police found an illegal rifle with a scope at the makeshift ambush site.
Dozens of social media posts, a self-published pamphlet and multiple interviews with Western media outlets during his time in kyiv attest to Routh's activism on behalf of Ukraine. Time has subsequently obtained his private messages from two of his contacts in kyiv, who were not identified.
“I have 40 or 50 men sitting around waiting for a logical place to fight,” Routh reportedly sent a text message in early July 2022. “We finished digging trenches for the Ukrainians,” he added.
The outlet described Routh as “well known but not very respected among the community of foreign fighters he tried to help in Ukraine.” Three of his contacts who spoke to Time said it happened “much of his time” Over the past three years, driving a “Half-baked plan” to recruit fighters from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
One described it as “basically homeless”, sleeping in the barracks or bases of Ukrainian military units. The direct messages obtained by Time date from the summer of 2023 to the fall of 2023 and include what appears to be a list of Arab fighters he claimed to have recruited.
“No one will be recruited from Syria or Iraq! I told you that before.” An official with the Ukrainian Legion International responded to Routh in November 2022. “Those countries are banned and with good reason.”
“How about Afghanistan?” Routh responded to a message a little later.
Although one of his contacts said Routh had managed to recruit some fighters, Colonel Ruslan Miroshnichenko of the Second International Legion denied this.
“Their actions and attitude often did not correspond to the official policy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine regarding recruitment into international legions,” He told Time on Monday.
Miroshnichenko recalled meeting Routh in kyiv in the spring of 2022 and described him as “waving the American flag, smiling, clapping” and offered to hand over recruits. The colonel said he told Routh to follow official channels and not improvise.
If Routh ever managed to recruit some fighters, “He had no authority to do that,” Miroshnichenko insisted.
As of early November 2023, Routh was still trying to convince kyiv to hire US-trained Afghan troops, and asked for visas so they could be brought in. When he was refused, he responded with a text message: “So you have a lot of soldiers… good deal… when will we win this war?”
