From Taylor Swift's ex to wanted list: Why RFK Jr's son is in Russia's crosshairs

Conor Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy Jr's son, has been placed on Russia's international wanted list over his reported fighting with Ukraine's International Legion in 2022. He secretly spent two and a half months on Ukraine's front lines and later returned to the US, where he resumed law studies and now works as an attorney.

In Short

• Kennedy secretly joined Ukraine's International Legion in 2022
• Kept enlistment secret from family, later revealed by credit card records
• Moscow court authorised his arrest in absentia for mercenary activity

Conor Kennedy, the son of US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, has been placed on Russia’s international wanted list for fighting alongside Ukrainian forces in the Ukraine war, according to reports.

The New York Post reported that the Basmanny District Court of Moscow authorised Kennedy’s “arrest in absentia” after accusing him of acting as a mercenary for the Ukrainian armed forces, Russian state outlet TASS reported last week. According to the outlet, he faces seven to 10 years in prison if Russian authorities capture him.

Kennedy, 32, revealed in an Instagram post in October 2022 that he had secretly travelled to Kyiv to fight with Ukraine’s International Legion on the front lines against Russia’s invasion. He said he had told only one person in Ukraine about his whereabouts and one person in Kyiv his real name.

“Like many people, I was deeply moved by what I saw happening in Ukraine over the past year. I wanted to help,” Kennedy wrote. He said he learnt about Ukraine’s International Legion, decided to join it and went to the embassy to enlist the next day.

“I didn’t want my family or friends to worry, and I didn’t want to be treated differently there,” he wrote.

Kennedy said he had no prior military experience and “wasn’t a great shot,” but he was skilled at carrying heavy things and “learned fast.” He also said he was willing to die in Ukraine and that the legion soon agreed to send him to the northeastern front.

The third child of RFK Jr kept his enlistment secret from his father and stepmother, Cheryl Hines. He told them he had decided against working at a Los Angeles law firm that summer, People reported.

Conor briefly dated singer Taylor Swift in 2012. The two were romantically linked during the summer of that year and reportedly split in October after dating for a few months. Swift was 22 and Kennedy was 18 at the time.

Kennedy, the grandson of the late US senator Robert F Kennedy, asked his parents not to question his whereabouts and maintained that he was doing something he believed in.

“We asked him when he was starting [the job at the law firm],” RFK Jr previously told People. “He had a good job, and we were looking forward to having him stay with us. And he told us that he had given notice to the law firm, and he was doing something else instead.”

His parents later became suspicious after his credit card bills showed charges in Poland and Ukraine, according to the outlet.

“When he got back, I kind of expressed some, I don’t know, whether it’s anger or whatever,” RFK Jr said.

Kennedy then told his father, “Dad, this is what you taught me to do: to stand up for what I believe in.”

“I’m very proud of this. Of my son,” RFK Jr said.

He also acknowledged that his son’s views on the war did not align with his own. RFK Jr. said Kennedy had strongly supported US intervention and did not want to support a war from the sidelines.

Kennedy spent two and a half months on the front lines in Ukraine before returning to resume his law studies at Georgetown University.

He currently works as an associate attorney at Wisner Baum’s Los Angeles office.

Other foreign volunteers have also appeared on Russia’s wanted list, including US citizen Ingram Asbill Tracy James, 37, and British citizen Shorney Joseph Richard Ryan, according to TASS.

Kennedy and a spokesperson for RFK Jr did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Kennedy previously had a whirlwind romance with Taylor Swift before marrying Brazilian singer-songwriter Giulia Be this year.

- Ends