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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)
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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.

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Fire Tornadoes are a Risk Under California's Extreme Wildfire Conditions

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
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Fire Tornadoes are a Risk Under California's Extreme Wildfire Conditions

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP

As if they aren’t already facing enough, firefighters in California also could encounter fire tornadoes — a rare but dangerous phenomenon in which wildfires create their own weather.

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” in which any new fire could explode in size. The advisory, which runs into Wednesday, didn’t mention tornadoes, but meteorologist Todd Hall said they're possible given the extreme conditions.

 

A look at fire tornadoes according to The AP.

What is a fire tornado? Fire whirl, fire devil, fire tornado or even firenado — scientists, firefighters and regular folks use multiple terms to describe similar phenomena, and they don’t always agree on what’s what. Some say fire whirls are formed only by heat, while fire tornadoes involve clouds generated by the fire itself.

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s glossary of wildland fire terms doesn’t include an entry for fire tornado, but it defines a fire whirl as a “spinning vortex column of ascending hot air and gases rising from a fire and carrying aloft smoke, debris and flame,” and says large whirls “have the intensity of a small tornado.”

Wildfires with turbulent plumes can produce clouds that in turn can produce lightning or a vortex of ash, smoke and flames, said Leila Carvalho, professor of meteorology and climatology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“There is a rotation caused by very strong wind shear and a very hot, localized low-pressure system,” she said.

What is a fire tornado capable of? Fire tornadoes can make fires stronger by sucking up air, Carvalho said. “It creates a tornado track, and wherever this goes, the destruction is like any other tornado.”

In 2018, a fire tornado the size of three football fields killed a firefighter as it exploded in what already was a vast and devastating wildfire near near Redding, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of San Francisco in northern California. Scientists later described an ice-capped cloud that reached 7 miles (11 km) into the air and caused winds up to 143 mph (230 kph).

Research also suggests fire tornadoes can carry airborne embers, also called firebrands, over long distances, said James Urban, an assistant professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. They also can change the fire’s behavior, he said.

“That’s also something that is dangerous and scary for first responders, or really anyone,” he said. “It can change and maybe go in a different direction.”

The interaction between wind, the fire plume and topography determines whether a tornado will develop, he said. For example, sometimes a certain topography will restrict airflow in such a way that a spiral pattern develops.

Can you make one in a lab? Together with San José State University, Worcester Polytech is part of a Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center. In the lab in Worcester, researchers have created small fire tornadoes by putting up walls around a fire or arranging a bunch of little fires that together restrict airflow. But that’s on a much smaller scale than what’s happening with the wildfires.

“We’ve got the biggest fire lab in the US for a university, but we cannot get something the size of what’s been reported at these fires,” he said. “You can’t really bottle that and put it in a lab.”