The potential Trump assassin was known as a colorful bird in Ukraine. The German Chris Lutz met him there in 2022. Now Lutz tells us about his impressions.
When the news of the arrest of the American Ryan Routh and the first photos went around the world on Monday morning, Chris Lutz in Germany rubbed his eyes in amazement. “I couldn't believe it at first,” he says in an interview with t-online, “the leek as a possible assassin?”
Far away from Florida, in the middle of Ukraine, Lutz got an impression of the strange world of the man who had now traveled to Donald Trump's golf course in Florida with an AK-47 rifle with a scope. In Kyiv, however, people perceived him more as a joker.
At the end of May 2022, Lutz traveled to Ukraine for the first time to help civilians – and after a few days was approached by the man who now apparently wanted to point his rifle at the presidential candidate 400 meters from Trump. “I was eating in a bar when he suddenly stood next to me. He spoke to everyone in Kiev who spoke English,” says Lutz. t-online was able to check with a video of both of them that they actually met.
The new contact initially sounded promising to him, reports Lutz: “He told me he knew everyone and could mediate. So we exchanged numbers.” Lutz later realized that Routh had completely exaggerated and blocked his number at some point.
Both apparently traveled to Ukraine for the same reason – to help the people in the invaded country. Lutz did this by bringing relief supplies to places near the border and taking part in civilian evacuations. Routh, on the other hand, wanted to help militarily. In mid-February 2022, before Russia's invasion, he had already written on the X platform (formerly Twitter) that he was flying to Ukraine to fight. Finally, on April 9, he reported that he was now in Independence Square and wanted to join forces with other foreign fighters.
When the American – in his mid-50s and without the relevant training – was not in demand, he tried his hand at recruiting. “That was obviously his alternative plan,” said Lutz. “If he can't fight, then he'll find fighters.” And excessively so. “He had a hyperfocus on it.” Routh didn't give the impression of being “crazy”, “but he was obsessed with it”.
Routh apparently knew some officers with lower ranks, but never had an official assignment. On the contrary: Routh was apparently also looking for ways to illegally bring soldiers from Afghanistan and Syria past Ukrainian locations into Ukraine because they were tried and tested in battles against the Taliban and Assad troops. Routh himself told the New York Times. On X he wrote of 10,000 trained soldiers. His account there was deleted on Monday.
Routh aggressively sought publicity; the German “Tagesspiegel” reporter Sebastian Leber also had contact with Routh, who was hard to miss in Kiev. There are various photos that show him with a banner at Independence Square, where his number and his email address are emblazoned on his T-shirt, which begins with “aid.in.ukraine.” He often wore a bandana the US colors,” says Lutz. “He was known as the Bandana Guy.” When Lutz was back in Kiev from relief trips, he met Routh again and again during several weeks when the German was in Ukraine in 2022 He didn't see him anymore, but the community quickly stopped taking him seriously.
