The suspect in the second assassination attempt on former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump has no ties to Ukrainian institutions, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said at a briefing on Sept. 17.
The U.S. Secret Service on Sept. 15 opened fire after seeing an armed individual at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while Trump was playing golf. Trump was unharmed, and the FBI is investigating the incident as another assassination attempt against the Republican presidential candidate.
The suspect detained in connection to the attack was identified as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh. Based on his social media activity, Routh has cast himself as a supporter of Ukraine and spoke to the New York Times in 2023 about a scheme to recruit Afghan soldiers to fight for Kyiv.
Tykhyi reiterated that the suspect has never fought for Ukraine as a member of the International Legion or other units of Ukraine's Defense Forces.
"We can see from the news reports that the suspect previously publicly supported Ukraine, but there are hundreds of millions of people in the United States who support Ukraine and clearly diverse groups of individuals," the spokesperson said.
"We urge everyone to refrain from artificially linking the suspect's actions to Ukraine."
Following the incident, President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the assassination attempt on Trump, saying that "the rule of law is paramount and political violence has no place anywhere in the world."
Trump was previously targeted in an assassination attempt on July 13 during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The incident sparked a wave of pro-Kremlin propaganda blaming Democrats for the plot against Trump.
There are fears that Routh's apparent support for Ukraine will likely further inflame Russian disinformation narratives ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Multiple reports indicated that Russia would seek to interfere in the upcoming vote by backing Trump and turning the American public against supporting Ukraine.
Chris York
(Updated: )
