Alleged would-be Trump assassin Ryan Wesley Routh rolled up in Ukraine last year looking to fight the Russians and make an impact — but was quickly rejected and pushed aside after being dubbed a “wack job” and “off” by the more serious foreign fighters in the country, several sources involved in the volunteer effort said.
While some had interacted with him personally, others told The Post they knew his “type” and were “not at all surprised by it.”
“A crazy idiot, but no one’s really surprised. There are people like that that show up and are desperate to help and be important,” one American fighting for Ukraine told The Post. “And he was just one of those – just on the crazier end of things.”
The American fighters and volunteers who spoke to The Post requested anonymity for fear of Russian doxxing.
Routh, 58, had no military experience, but traveled to Ukraine around March 2023 thinking he could help out in the war effort, anyway.
One volunteer told The Post that Routh’s alleged use of a GoPro when he staked out Trump was particularly telling of his problematic connections to Ukraine, saying that “there’s too many clout chasers” among foreign visitors to Ukraine.
“A lot of the people that are here are not really here for Ukraine, they’re not really here for the war. They’re here to kind of be famous or live out a fantasy or feel like they’re a part of something,” the volunteer said.
“Ukraine for them is kind of like their chance to finally make it. I think unfortunately that for the vast majority of them, that’s not helping.”
When he was rejected by the Ukrainian Foreign Legion — which has recruited thousands of foreigners to fight for Ukraine, he took it upon himself to become a one-man recruitment office. But even those efforts drew scorn, sources told The Post.
However, he told Financial Times last year that the Ukrainian international legion rejected him because he was “old” and lacked battlefield expertise, and suggested he help “recruit and coordinate” instead.
“Oh man I knew I recognized that guy,” one volunteer said in a private chat group shared with The Post. “He had some scheme where he was moving people from Afghanistan to Ukraine to fight.”
“I remember Ryan well…but not fondly,” wrote another foreign volunteer, attaching a screenshot of a text conversation with the would-be assassin in which Routh bragged that he was “back home” from Ukraine by including a grinning, shirtless selfie of he and his apparent girlfriend on the beach wearing a straw hat.
‘Unbalanced and dangerous’
Rejected by legitimate Ukrainian volunteer causes, he launched to a dubious scheme to “recruit” former Afghan commandos who had helped the US during its 20-year war there to take up arms in Ukraine, sources told The Post.
He posted about his ambitions on social media.
One fighter said he met Routh said he got the impression he “was already extremely shady.”
“I ran into him once, he struck me as unbalanced and dangerous,” the fighter said.
The Ukrainian Foreign Legion said Routh was not formally associated with its efforts.
However, an individual with knowledge of the legion’s recruitment efforts said that “anyone” can claim to be involved in the war effort by showing up and stepping in front of a camera.
“I can speak to this personally, that it’s not like recruiting for the military in the United States,” the individual said. “Oftentimes, when someone joins the unit, it’s that they were just referred by someone else within the unit or somebody outside the unit that knows people in the unit. That’s usually how it goes.”
“He took it upon himself to steer people in the direction of the International Legion – that seems to be the extent of his recruiting duties for the International Legion.”
Routh appeared in several major international publications – including the New York Times, Semafor and Newsweek Romania – making wild claims and lambasting Ukrainians for resisting his apparently unsolicited advice for boosting the Foreign Legion’s rosters.
“Mr. Routh, who spent several months in Ukraine last year, said he planned to move them, in some cases illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. He said dozens had expressed interest,” the New York Times reported in March of 2023.
“We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country,” he told the Times.
But when those ideas were met with skepticism he grew frustrated, telling Semafor that Ukrainians were being too rigid in their requirements of admitting foreign fighters.
“Ukraine is very often hard to work with. Many foreign soldiers leave after a week in Ukraine or must move from unit to unit to find a place they are respected and appreciated,” he told Semafor. He’d been “yelled at” every time he suggested they tap Afghan commandos. “They’re afraid that anybody and everybody is a Russian spy,” he said with frustration.
“Most of the Ukrainian authorities do not want these soldiers,” Routh told Semafor. “I have had partners meeting with [Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense] every week and still have not been able to get them to agree to issue one single visa.”
‘Messiah complex‘
Other organizations in Ukraine with which Routh claimed to be associated have also disavowed him. That includes the International Volunteer Center, which Routh claimed he led in an Semafor article. The group said it had no dealings or connections with him.
“We have been officially registered as an organization in Ukraine since October 2023. Prior to the recent developments, none of us had any knowledge of Mr. Routh or any other entity named the International Volunteer Center, aside from our own registered organization,” the center said.
“We presume Mr. Routh has not established any organization with the name International Volunteer Center in Ukraine.”
Similarly, Ukraine’s Azov Brigade denied association with Routh after a video of him attending a rally in supporting its Mariupol garrison circulated online, saying the “peaceful demonstration he attended was open and anyone could join it. He was caught on the video filmed by the protesters by accident.”
“We believe that the spread of the narrative about the possible connection between Azov and Ryan Wesley Routh is playing along with Russian propaganda and discredits the 12th Special Forces Brigade Azov of the National Guard of Ukraine and the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine in general,” it said Monday in a post to X.
Now, many American fighters and volunteers in Ukraine tell The Post they are fearful that reports of the alleged would-be assassin’s efforts in Ukraine could crush the critical US support for the war that their lives depend upon.
“This is not going to be good for support for Ukraine, to what degree I can’t say,” a foreign legion member told The Post, adding that he thought Routh had a “Messiah complex.”
“I can tell you, though, that this is definitely bad. It does not help.”
His involvement with Ukraine has already been used by Russian officials and other propagandists to spread disinformation about foreign help to Kyiv.
“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?” former Russian Prime Minister and Russian President Vladimir Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev wrote in a post to X on Monday.
