Vets helping Ukraine worry Trump assassination attempt suspect will hurt their cause

Many questions remain about the man accused of planning to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf club. Ryan Routh had a criminal record and ping-ponging political allegiances, and in a detail that’s drawing some scrutiny, he also traveled to Ukraine after the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.

Routh spoke with major media organizations then about wildly ambitious plans to help the war effort. Americans devoted to helping Ukraine now worry Routh’s newfound notoriety will damage their cause.

Adrian Bonenberger, an Afghanistan vet who co-founded American Veterans for Ukraine, says he was horrified to hear of a second attempted assassination of Trump, but was also dismayed when he heard about Routh’s background.

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

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

“I’m talking to a hundred soldiers every day,” he claimed in a 2023 interview with the news site Semafor. Routh admitted in that interview that Ukrainian officials opposed the idea and, “pretty much yelled at me every time that I suggested that we bring in Afghans.”

The New York Times also interviewed him about his scheme back then, and Routh discussed possibly bribing officials and obtaining forged passports to get the Afghans to Ukraine. In an article this week, Times reporter Thomas Gibbons-Neff said he had dismissed Routh as “in way over his head.”

Now that he’s known worldwide for allegedly plotting to assassinate Trump though,