The New York Times has reported that Trump assassination suspect Ryan Wesley Routh said last year that he was looking to recruit former Afghan troops to fight in Ukraine.

"We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country," Routh had said.

On Sunday, media outlets reported a shooting near Trump's residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
Police officials said that the gunman was among the bushes near the golf course when Secret Service agents spotted the barrel of his rifle.

Police officials identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh and said that he was stopped and taken into custody while he was fleeing.

The New York Times reported that Roth, 58, gave an interview to the newspaper in March last year and said that he was looking to recruit troops from the former Afghan government for the war in Ukraine.

He had said that he was planning to illegally transfer Afghan troops from Iran and Pakistan to Ukraine.

Routh claimed that dozens of Afghan soldiers have expressed interest in fighting in Ukraine.

It is unclear how successful Ryan Routh's efforts to recruit Afghan troops have been, but a former Afghan government soldier in Iran told the New York Times that he had been contacted about the matter and that if going to Ukraine meant the end of his illegal stay in Iran, he wanted to go to war.

Ryan Routh himself spent a few months in Ukraine in 2022. Roth had said he was willing to fight in Ukraine and be killed.