Tuesday, September 17, 2024 - The Alleged would-be Trump assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh reportedly travelled to Ukraine last year looking to fight the Russians but was quickly rejected and pushed aside after being dubbed a “wack job” and “off” by the more serious foreign fighters in the country.
According to the NY Post, volunteer fighters 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,” An
American fighting for Ukraine, who requested anonymity told The NY Post.
“And he was just one of those – just on the crazier end of
things.”
Routh, 58, had no military experience but travelled to
Ukraine around March 2023 thinking he could help out in the war effort.
One volunteer told The Post that Routh’s alleged use of a
GoPro when he tried checking out Trump was particularly telling of his
problematic connections to Ukraine, saying that “there are 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 officer.
However, he told the Financial Times last year that the
Ukrainian international legion rejected him because he was “old” and lacked
battlefield expertise. They then suggested he helped to “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.
One fighter said he met Routh and 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.
Also, 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.”
.jpg)
0 Comments