Ryan Wesley Routh attends a rally in downtown Kiev, Ukraine, on April 30, 2022.

Efrem Lukatsky/AP

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Efrem Lukatsky/AP

Many questions remain about the man accused of plotting to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf club. Ryan Routh had a criminal record, ping-ponged political leanings, and in a bit of a attention-grabbing detail, he also traveled to Ukraine after Russia’s massive invasion in 2022.

Routh then spoke to major media outlets about the hugely ambitious plans to support the war effort. Americans now working to help Ukraine worry that Routh’s newfound fame will hurt their cause.

Adrian Bonenberger, an Afghanistan veteran and co-founder of American Veterans for Ukraine, says he was shocked to hear of a second assassination attempt on Trump, but also shocked to learn about Routh’s background.

“When I heard he had a connection to Ukraine, my first thought of course was, oh no, that’s terrible. People are going to get the wrong impression,” Bonenberger said.

Routh had no military experience, but in his late 50s he traveled to Ukraine and began promoting the idea of ​​recruiting former U.S.-trained soldiers from Afghanistan to fight in Ukraine.

“I talk to a hundred soldiers every day,” he claimed in an interview with the news site Semafor in 2023. Routh admitted in that interview that Ukrainian officials opposed the idea and “scolded me pretty much every time I suggested bringing in Afghans.”

The New York Times also interviewed him about his plan at the time, and Routh possibly discussed bribing officials and obtaining forged passports to get the Afghans into Ukraine. In an article this week, Times reporter Thomas Gibbons-Neff said he Routh fired as “way above his head.”

Now that he is known worldwide for his alleged plans to assassinate Trump, Americans who support Ukraine are concerned the damage to their cause could be severe.

Idealists, adventurers and madmen

According to Bonenberger, who has visited Ukraine several times since the beginning of the war to train Ukrainian soldiers with other American veterans, all kinds of Americans come to Ukraine.

“You have idealists, adventurers, drifters, desperadoes, criminals and lunatics. When you separate those people, and see who is who, it is difficult at that moment … to distinguish people who are basically reasonable people who are doing something unusual and extraordinary from people who are not,” he said. “Some people who are running from the law, some people who are cynical opportunists who are just trying to make a name for themselves or make money … or people who are just mentally unbalanced.”

Ukraine supporters worry that the country’s fight against Russia has become a partisan issue in an election year and that Routh’s alleged plot could brand their entire movement as anti-Trump. This comes after the former president was asked during this month’s debate whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war. Trump instead responded, “I want the war to stop.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered his condolences and best wishes to Trump for the second time in recent months. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi told NPR during a news conference Tuesday in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev: “Ukraine strongly condemns this criminal act and all forms of political violence. We are pleased that this suspect was captured so quickly.”

Tykhyi said Routh has no ties to the Ukrainian government and has never served in the International Legion, the main force of foreign military volunteers, or in any unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

“There are hundreds of millions of people in the United States who support Ukraine and they are clearly diverse individuals. We urge everyone not to artificially link the actions of this suspect to Ukraine,” he said.