The suspect, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, had previously traveled to Ukraine to lend his support to the war effort.
Zelensky, in a statement, expressed relief over the swift apprehension of the suspect. "It's good that the suspect in the assassination attempt was apprehended quickly. This is our principle: the rule of law is paramount and political violence has no place anywhere in the world," he said, extending his best wishes to Trump and his family.
According to the Daily Mail, Routh was arrested after U.S. Secret Service agents reportedly "opened fire on a gunman" who was carrying an AK-47 style rifle near Trump's Florida golf course. This incident occurred exactly two months after another assassination attempt on the former President during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
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Routh had previously shown support for Ukraine's battle against the Russian invasion. In a 2022 interview with Newsweek Romania, he described the conflict with Russia as a clear-cut case of good versus evil. However, Ukrainian officials have since distanced themselves from Routh. A high-ranking Ukrainian official, who chose to remain anonymous, told AFP, "He did not serve here and has no ties to state structures, that's for sure. He entered Ukraine as a nobody, just a supporter, there are many people like this."
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The Telegraph reported that Routh was rejected from the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine due to his lack of military experience. The Guardian also reported that Ukraine's foreign legion described Routh's views on the conflict as "delusional".
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Routh, in his 2022 interview with Newsweek Romania, had said, "The question as far as why I'm here -- to me, a lot of the other conflicts are grey, but this conflict is definitely black and white. My original goal was to come and fight. All of us, from the entire planet, should be motivated to support the Ukrainian army, but I'm 56 years old and have no military experience, so I'm not an ideal candidate to actually fight. So plan B was to come to Kyiv and promote the idea of many others coming to join the International Legion. We need thousands of people here to fight alongside the Ukrainians."
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Routh had also shared his plan to recruit fighters by moving Afghan soldiers, sometimes illegally, from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine. His dedication to Ukraine's war effort was such that he even helped cut the grass at Independence Square in Kyiv using scissors.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has interpreted the alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump as an indication of the intensifying US election campaign. "We can see how tense the situation is there, including between political rivals - the political fight is intensifying," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. "We are watching it closely, but we have never interfered in this in any way and we are not interfering now."
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This incident underscores the volatile nature of political rivalries and the potential dangers they pose, even to those who have left the political arena. It also highlights the complex dynamics of international conflicts and the individuals who become entangled in them.
