In April 2022, a little over a month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a stream of middle-aged European and American volunteers were passing through Poland on their way into Ukraine. There was the retired attorney delivering sweets to Ukrainian orphanages; the Irish former French Foreign Legion soldier carrying luggage for refugees, and the Englishman who had moved from France to help rescue pets. One American in his 60s was transporting dead frozen chicks from Poland to a zoo in western Ukraine. They called themselves the “silent army” and the “get-off-the-couch crew”.
Ryan Wesley Routh was like them but less subtle: he was standing in the frenzied station at Przemyśl draped in a US flag. He had thin, blondish hair and a zealous gleam in his eyes, and said he had arrived at the station at 7.30am having travelled for four days – from Hawaii, to Los Angeles, to Krakow, to Przemyśl. Next stop: Ukraine.
“One-way ticket,” he said. “I’ll die here.”
Routh, who has been accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump at his Florida golf course on Sunday, has been largely disavowed by Ukrainian officials. One told CNN that Routh had contacted Ukrainian armed forces with “delusional ideas”, and denied that they had cooperated with him. “We didn’t even answer; there was nothing to answer to,” said Oleksandr Shaguri, a representative from Ukraine’s foreign legion.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Routh’s links to Ukraine showed that “playing with fire” had consequences – a reference to the US support of Ukraine against Russia – while Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, condemned the incident, saying political violence had no place anywhere and that he was “glad to hear that Donald Trump is safe and unharmed”.
Routh’s son Oran confirmed to the Guardian on Sunday that his father was committed to the cause of supporting Ukraine, about which he had been interviewed by several media outlets and posted about frequently on social media.
At Przemyśl station, Routh declared he would apply for Ukraine’s “international brigade” of foreign fighters, explaining that he had brought a bulletproof vest and helmet. But without any military experience, he expected a rejection. Asked if he was prepared to kill, he said: “I will do that all day long,” adding: “But me killing two or three people would not change course of war. Encouraging thousands of people can change things.”
He had no contacts in Ukraine. His plan: erect national flags from around the world in central Kyiv, organise a human chain around them, and, in his words, declare: “Putin, here I am.”
“If I am not firing a gun, at least I am going to be cheering them on. Go team,” he said.
He calculated that if Russia bombed his protest site, it would be attacking a representation of the world’s communities, which he believed would provoke global action against Russia.
He said: “We need thousands of civilians from every country arm in arm in the centre of Kyiv, saying: this is not right. If Putin is OK with killing Ukrainians then he needs to kill people from other countries as well. He can start with me.”
He also said he was disappointed that “thousands of civilians are not here now like I am, standing with Ukrainians to stop this atrocity”.
He said: “Ukraine is a civilised society. Apparently, Russia is not. Apparently, it’s barbaric and idiotic. This is 2022, not the Hitler era or world war one. We are all supposed to be educated, and intelligent, but apparently Putin doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong.”
Routh said he had left his construction business in Hawaii, having taken a month to “wind down operations” and “tie up every loose end to get out of town”. He said he had a wife and three children – aged 23, 27 and 29 at the time.
“They can fend for themselves; they don’t need a dad any more,” he said.
One son was “pissed off as hell” about him going to Ukraine, he said. “He wants me to live, but this is more important. Every other war has been grey. This situation is black and white.”
Routh’s political leanings have been described as not dividing neatly along partisan lines. He was reportedly registered with the Democratic party in North Carolina but also reportedly said on social media that he had voted for Trump in 2016 and had expressed support for a Republican party ticket of Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy.
One loyalty, however, he was clear about: he said if he were killed, he was adamant he would die wrapped in his US flag.
“I want to make sure that if the Russians kill me, they know who they’re killing,” he said, indicating the flag. “I’m an American.”