Maja Smiekovska/Reuters
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaks at a press conference in London, England on June 3, 2024.
CNN
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Nigel Farage, a British right-wing populist icon, drew the wrath of his political opponents when he said the West had “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Farage, leader of the fast-growing Reform UK Party and a key figure in the Brexit debate, is aiming to win a seat for the first time in next month’s general election.
In an interview with the BBC on Friday, Mr Farage was asked whether he stood by a tweet he posted in February 2022 in which he called Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine “a consequence of EU and NATO enlargement”.
“Why did you say that? NATO and the expansion of the European Union to the East have given this man [Putin] “It gives the Russians an excuse to start a war, to say they’re coming to attack us again,” he told the BBC’s Nick Robinson.
“We started this war. Of course it’s his fault. He used our actions as an excuse,” he said.
Mr Farage, a former EU MEP, claimed to be the “only person in British politics” to have predicted the invasion of Ukraine.
After his BBC appearance, Farage spoke to X to clarify his comments. “I am one of the few people who have been consistently honest about the war with Russia,” he wrote. “Putin was wrong to invade sovereign nations and the EU was wrong to expand eastward.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak responded to the comments to reporters today. “His comments are completely wrong and play into President Putin’s hands,” Sunak said. “Such appeasement is dangerous to the UK’s national security.”
British Home Secretary James Cleverley told XTV that Mr Farage was “repeating Putin’s vile justification for the brutal invasion of Ukraine”.
Speaking about Farage’s comments on the BBC’s Today programme, former Conservative defence secretary Ben Wallace said the Reform Party leader was “a bit like that boring pub bloke you often meet at the end of the bar, who often says ‘Oh, if I were running the country’ and who, unfortunately, gives very simplistic answers to complex 21st century problems.”
The opposition Labour Party, which is overwhelmingly predicted in opinion polls to be returned to power next month, also spoke out.
“These are disgraceful comments and expose Nigel Farage for the true colours – a Putin apologist who should not be trusted with our national security,” wrote Labour MP and shadow defence secretary John Healey.
He added that Mr Farage had “shown that he would rather lick Vladimir Putin’s shoes than stand up for the Ukrainian people”.
