Presidential hopeful Donald Trump was shot by a sniper during a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, but was not seriously injured. Russia’s propaganda machine immediately rolled into action to capitalise on the incident and tried to connect it to the war in Ukraine.

The incident, which analysts say has vastly improved Trump’s chances for re-election in the presidential vote in November, sparked a flurry of comments from Russian propagandists and politicians hoping to exploit the situation by linking it to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Russian officials and media figures wasted no time in weaving the assassination attempt into their narrative of the Ukraine war. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova blamed the US for fostering an “environment of hatred” against political opponents, dragging Kyiv into the conversation by way of comparison, reports Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs and founder of the Institute of the Future.

"With massive funding and uncontrolled arms supplies, Washington has created a terrorist organisation in Ukraine - the Kyiv regime," Zakharova stated. "It is a machine of murder, subversion, destruction, and terrorist attacks against both political figures and civilians."

RT chief Margarita Simonyan and one of Russia’s top pundits drew a dramatic comparison between American politics and a monotonous television series. "Watching America is like watching a TV series where the scriptwriters ran out of imagination long ago and repeat themselves from episode to episode, but you've gotten used to the characters like house slippers and keep watching," she said.

Vladimir Solovyev, another prominent Russian political TV talk show host, has yet to make a personal statement. However, he shared comments on his Telegram channel, accusing US President Joe Biden and his administration of being the “primary sponsors of global terrorism.”

"The US has become the main sponsor of terrorism in the world, it's really a terrorist regime in Washington," Solovyev wrote.

At press time, there was no official statement from Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the incident.

The gunman was reportedly killed by Secret Service agents after getting off seven rounds and tragically one member of the audience also lost their life during the chaos.

After visiting the hospital, Trump's campaign staff say he will continue with his campaign schedule unchanged.