Nigel Farage defends comments on Ukraine war after national backlash

Nigel Farage, leader of the British reform party Reform UK, defended his claim that the West provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine and backed up his comments in a newspaper editorial.

In a BBC interview broadcast on Friday, the eurosceptic politician claimed that the West was partly to blame for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in 2022.

With these comments, Mr Farage defended a 2022 social media post claiming the invasion was a “consequence of EU and NATO enlargement”.

“It was obvious to me that the ever eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union gave this man a reason to tell his Russian people, ‘They’re coming back to get us’ and go to war,” he said of the post.

“We provoked this war… he used what we did as a pretext.”

In an opinion piece published in the Telegraph on Saturday, Mr Farage reiterated his views.

“Don’t blame me if I tell the truth,” he pleaded with readers.

“I saw it coming a decade ago, warned about it, and am one of the few politicians who have always been right and honest about Russia’s war in Ukraine.”

Critics, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer, disagreed.

Mr Sunak accused Mr Farage of “appeasement” and described his claim to the BBC as “completely false” and “dangerous for Britain’s security” because it “plays into Putin’s hands”.

“This is a man (Mr Putin) who has used nerve agents on the streets of Britain, who does business with countries like North Korea, and this kind of appeasement is dangerous for the security of Britain, the security of our allies who depend on us, and only emboldens Putin further,” the Prime Minister added.

Mr Starmer said the “disgraceful” comments showed Mr Farage was “an apologist for Putin”.