Ryan Routh, Reported Suspect in Trump Assassination Attempt, Backed Ukraine in War

This screengrab taken from AFPTV on September 16, 2024 shows Ryan Wesley Routh speaking during an interview at a rally to urge foreign leaders and international organizations to help provide humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and Ukrainian servicemen from Mariupol in central Kyiv on April 27, 2022, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (AFPTV / AFP)
This screengrab taken from AFPTV on September 16, 2024 shows Ryan Wesley Routh speaking during an interview at a rally to urge foreign leaders and international organizations to help provide humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and Ukrainian servicemen from Mariupol in central Kyiv on April 27, 2022, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (AFPTV / AFP)
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Ryan Routh, Reported Suspect in Trump Assassination Attempt, Backed Ukraine in War

This screengrab taken from AFPTV on September 16, 2024 shows Ryan Wesley Routh speaking during an interview at a rally to urge foreign leaders and international organizations to help provide humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and Ukrainian servicemen from Mariupol in central Kyiv on April 27, 2022, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (AFPTV / AFP)
This screengrab taken from AFPTV on September 16, 2024 shows Ryan Wesley Routh speaking during an interview at a rally to urge foreign leaders and international organizations to help provide humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians and Ukrainian servicemen from Mariupol in central Kyiv on April 27, 2022, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (AFPTV / AFP)

Ryan Routh, the reported suspect in an apparent assassination attempt on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Sunday, stayed in Kyiv in the summer of 2022 to encourage people to fight for Ukraine, he told a news outlet that year.

CNN, Fox News and The New York Times identified Routh, 58, of Hawaii, as the suspect citing unidentified law enforcement officials. The FBI declined to comment and Reuters could not independently verify his identity.

"A lot of the other conflicts are grey but this conflict is definitely black and white. This is about good versus evil," Routh said in an interview posted by Newsweek Romania in June 2022. His comments suggested he was in Kyiv at the time.

Some four months into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Routh perceived the war to be at a critical juncture and called for more international support.

When asked about what he was doing in Ukraine, Routh said his initial goal was to come to fight but after the plan did not work out, because his age and lack of military experience meant he was not accepted, he turned to promoting the cause to others.

"If the governments will not send their official military, then we, civilians, have to pick up the torch and make this thing happen and we have gotten some wonderful people here, but it is a small fraction of the number that should be here," Routh said.

Reuters could not independently verify his assertions.

Hundreds of non-Ukrainians have been fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine and others have played a role in trying to recruit them.

RECRUITMENT EFFORTS

The International Legion, where many of the fighters serve, said it had no links with Routh.

"We would like to clarify that Ryan Wesley Routh has never been part of, associated with, or linked to the International Legion in any capacity," the group told Reuters. "Any claims or suggestions indicating otherwise are entirely inaccurate."

Routh also told the Semafor news outlet in March, 2023 that he had been trying to recruit US-trained Afghan fighters to fight for Ukraine against Russia but that the defense ministry in Kyiv had not agreed to issue visas to them.

An official source in Kyiv said authorities were looking into his role, if any, in Ukraine. The defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his assertions.

The Semafor article identified Routh as the head of the International Volunteer Center, which it said helped foreigners wanting to support Ukraine through military and humanitarian means.

Reuters contacted a Ukraine aid group with the same name, and its founder, Ian Netupsky, said Routh did not have any connection with his NGO. He added that there could be another unregistered group or organization using the same name.



Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
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Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)

A huge power outage hit large parts of Spain and Portugal on Monday, paralyzing traffic, grounding flights, trapping people in elevators and leaving power operators scrambling to restore power to millions of homes and businesses.

Some hospitals halted routine work and the two countries' governments convened emergency cabinet meetings, with officials initially saying a possible cyber-attack could not be ruled out. Outages on such a scale are extremely rare in Europe, and the cause could not immediately be established.

Reuters witnesses said power had started returning to the Basque country and Barcelona areas of Spain in the early afternoon, a few hours after the outage began. It was not clear when power might be more widely restored.

Hospitals in Madrid and Cataluna in Spain suspended all routine medical work but were still attending to critical patients, using backup generators. Several Spanish oil refineries were shut down and retail businesses shut.

The Bank of Spain said electronic banking was functioning "adequately" on backup systems, though residents also reported ATM screens had gone blank.

"I'm in a data center, and everything has gone off. All the alarms popped up, and now we're with the groups, waiting to find out what happened," said Barcelona resident and engineer Jose Maria Espejo, 40.

In a video posted on X, Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida urged city residents to minimize their journeys and stay where they were, adding: "It is essential that the emergency services can circulate."

In Portugal, water supplier EPAL said water supplies could also be disrupted, and queues formed at stores by people rushing to purchase emergency supplies like gaslights, generators and batteries.

The main Portuguese electricity utility, EDP, said it had told customers it had no forecast for when the energy supply would be "normalized", Publico newspaper said. It warned it could take several hours.

Parts of France also suffered a brief outage. RTE, the French grid operator, said it had moved to supplement power to some parts of northern Spain after the outage hit.

Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, forcing 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov and British opponent Jacob Fearnley off the court as scoreboards went dark and overhead cameras lost power.

TRAFFIC JAMS

Spanish radio stations said part of the Madrid underground was being evacuated. There were traffic jams in Madrid city center as traffic lights stopped working, Cader Ser Radio station reported.

Hundreds of people stood outside office buildings on Madrid’s streets and there was a heavy police presence around key buildings, directing traffic as well as driving along central atriums with lights, according to a Reuters witness.

One of four tower buildings in Madrid that houses the British Embassy had been evacuated, the witness added.

Local radio reported people trapped in stalled metro cars and elevators.

Portuguese police said traffic lights were affected across the country, the metro was closed in Lisbon and Porto, and trains were not running.

Lisbon's subway transport operator Metropolitano de Lisboa said the subway was at a standstill with people still inside the trains, according to Publico newspaper.

A source at Portugal's TAP Air said Lisbon airport was running on back-up generators, while AENA, which manages 46 airports in Spain, reported flight delays around the country.

Such widespread outages are unusual in Europe. In 2003 a problem with a hydroelectric power line between Italy and Switzerland caused a major outage across the whole Italian peninsula for around 12 hours.

In 2006 an overloaded power network in Germany caused electricity cuts across parts of the country and in France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and as far as Morocco.