Semafor cited its own March 7, 2023 interview with Routh in which the American – who is now a suspect in the Florida assassination attempt – expressed frustration with Ukraine over its willingness to accept foreign fighters.

“Ukraine is very often hard to work with,” Routh is quoted as saying. “Many foreign soldiers leave after a week in Ukraine or must move from unit to unit to find a place they are respected and appreciated.”

Routh had suggested Ukraine make use of Afghan commandos, but was “yelled at” by his Ukrainian contacts, Semafor reported.

Among other details to emerge, Routh evidently had been involved in efforts to support Ukraine in its defence against Russia.

In June 2020, he made a post on X directed at then-president Trump to say he would win re-election if he issued an executive order for the Justice Department to prosecute police misconduct.

Law enforcement identified Routh as the suspect to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Routh’s son, Oran Routh, told US broadcaster CNN that he does not know what has happened to his father but “hopes things have just been blown out of proportion”.

“Ryan is my father and I don’t have any comment beyond a character profile of him as a loving and caring father, an honest hard-working man,” Oran Routh told CNN.

“I don’t know what’s happened in Florida, and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion because from the little I’ve heard it doesn’t sound like the man I know to do anything crazy, much less violent.

“He’s a good father and a great man, and I hope you can portray him in an honest light.”

In 2022, Routh was convicted of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, according to North Carolina Department of Adult Correction online records.

The records do not provide details about the case. But a News & Record story from 2002 says a man with the same name was arrested after a three-hour stand-off with police. The story says he was pulled over during a traffic stop, put his hand on a gun and barricaded himself inside a roofing business.

Routh was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possessing a weapon of mass destruction, “referring to a fully automatic machine gun”, according to the News & Record newspaper.

The New York Times reports that at some stage in the last several years, Routh moved to Hawaii, where a man with his name ran a small business.

In a May 2020 post, he invited Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, to Hawaii for a vacation and offered to act as “ambassador and liaison” to resolve disputes between the two nations.

With agencies, Chris Zappone

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