Someone like Routh was quite easy to meet in Ukraine in the opening months of Russia’s full-scale war in 2022. But already, Moscow’s prolific echo chambers have begun to fashion a narrative in which US support for Ukraine is somehow extremist. People stand near the sports complex of a university after Russian missile attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine, on September 2. The clamor of support for Ukraine to receive US permission to fire longer-range US-supplied missiles at targets deeper inside Russian territory had been growing. The sudden insertion of a wayward extremist like Routh is a loud, confusing wild card, at a time when support for Ukraine urgently needed a calm and balanced voice.

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Persons: Ryan Wesley Routh, Donald Trump, Routh, Oleksandr Shaguri, “, ” Routh, Dmitri Peskov, ”, Marjorie Taylor Greene, ’, Putin, –, Maxym, Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden, Joe Biden Organizations: London CNN, Kyiv, Russia, Ukraine, New York Times, Foreigners, Department, Land Forces Command, CNN, Global Citizen –, Reuters, Russian, Republican Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Europe, Ukrainian, Kyiv, Pakistan, Iran, Global Citizen – Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, Florida, America, United States, Russian