Ukrainian military units on Monday denied any links to the suspect accused in an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday.

In a statement posted on X, the International Legion of Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, part of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate under the Ministry of Defense, said: “American citizen Ryan Routh has never served in the International Legion of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, has no relation to the unit. Rumors disseminated in certain media are not true.”

The Azov Brigade, a formation of the National Guard of Ukraine, also made a post denying ties to Routh, writing, “We would like to officially state that Ryan Wesley Routh has no connection to Azov and has never had any connection to Azov.”

It added, “The peaceful demonstration he attended was open and anyone could join it. He was caught on the video filmed by the protesters by accident.”

The post is referring to a video that emerged on social media showing Routh attending a 2022 rally in Kyiv in support of the military unit.

The New York Times last year published an interview in which Routh detailed his efforts to recruit former Afghan soldiers in Iran to fight in Ukraine.

He was also quoted in a March 2023 Semafor article discussing his difficulty in obtaining visas for Afghans to fight in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on foreign citizens to come and fight for Ukraine since the beginning of the war as the army faces a massive personnel shortage.

Trump has been critical of the Biden-Harris administration for sending billions in aid to Ukraine and has hinted that if re-elected, the U.S. would stop the aid to Kyiv.

© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.