The Kremlin has seized upon claims that a suspect who allegedly wanted to shoot Donald Trump was an outspoken supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, from Hawaii was reportedly arrested near the Republican presidential candidate’s golf course in Florida.
The gunman was first seen in bushes by Secret Service agents, who were sweeping the course ahead of the former president as he played on Sunday.
He was a safe distance away from the former president when the muzzle of an AK-47 style assault rifle was seen sticking out of the bushes, the security services said.
Mr Routh, who had no military experience, told the New York Times in 2023 he had travelled to Ukraine immediately after Russia's invasion in 2022 to find military recruits among Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban.
He wrote on Facebook in July: "Soldiers, please do not call me. We are still trying to get Ukraine to accept Afghan soldiers and hope to have some answers in the coming months... please have patience."
Asked about what the FBI called an apparent assassination attempt on Trump, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, referring to the alleged Ukraine connection, said: "It is not us who should be thinking, it is the US intelligence services who should be thinking. In any case, playing with fire has its consequences.”
His comments came as Nato members consider whether to allow Ukraine to use missiles the alliance has supplied to be fired into targets in Russia.
Meanwhile Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says he's glad to hear Trump is "safe and unharmed" as he warns violence has "no place" on the political stage.
Mr Routh's son, Oran, described him as a "loving and caring father".
"I don’t know what has 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 said in a statement to CNN.
The shooter fled after jumping in a Nissan when he was spotted but was later arrested after a police chase.
Thomas Matthew Crook, 20, was shot dead by security after he fired at Trump at a rally Pennsylvania in July. The former presidents suffered a wound to his ear in the incident which prompted a shake-up of security measures to protect him.
