These comments are “dangerous for the security of Great Britain and its allies, who count on us, and only strengthen Putin,” added the head of the conservative government.
Nigel Farage made the comments on the BBC on Friday evening, less than two weeks before the British general election on July 4. His party is experiencing a breakthrough in the polls, approaching – or even surpassing – the ruling Conservative Party. Labor is heavily favored.
Nigel Farage, a former MEP who played a major role in the Brexit campaign in 2016, claimed that as early as 2014 he told the European Parliament that there would be a war in Ukraine.
“It seemed obvious to me that the eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union gave (Russian President Vladimir Putin) a reason to say to his Russian people: ‘They are coming for us again’ and to go to war,” he said.
“We provoked this war,” he said. “Of course it’s his fault (that of Vladimir Putin, editor’s note) – he used what we did as an excuse,” added the head of Reform UK, who is a candidate for the legislative elections in a constituency in the south east of England.
Asked about old statements, Nigel Farage said he did not like Vladimir Putin “as a person” but “admired him as a political operator”.
“Farage echoes Putin’s vile justification for the brutal invasion of Ukraine,” responded Home Secretary James Cleverly on X.
John Healy, in charge of defense issues at the Labor Party which is favored to win the legislative elections, declared that Nigel Farage “would rather lick the boots of Vladimir Putin than defend the Ukrainian people”.
