Ryan Wesley Routh attends a rally to call on foreign leaders and international organizations to create humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and Ukrainian military personnel from Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 27, 2022.

Ryan Routh, who authorities suspect planned to attack former President Donald Trump while he played a round of golf, was an avid supporter of Ukraine and had visited the country.

Routh’s time in Ukraine:

In an April 2022 AFP video in Kiev, Routh called Putin a “terrorist” and said “he must be ended.”

A representative of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion told CNN that Routh had contacted them several times, but that he was never part of the military unit in which the foreign volunteers fight.

Routh also voiced his support for Ukraine on social media. In dozens of posts on X in 2022, he said he was prepared to die in battle and that “we must raze the Kremlin to the ground.”

He used Facebook to encourage foreigners to join the war. From October 2023, he attempted to recruit Afghan conscripts through numerous messages, posing as a secret contact for the Ukrainian government.