Britain’s Nigel Farage, Under Fire for Remarks on Ukraine, Insists He’s No Supporter of Putin

Maybe Nigel Farage should stick to Brexit? Best known as the architect of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, Mr. Farage, current leader of the Reform UK party, waded Friday into the fray over the conflict in Ukraine. He told a BBC presenter that “we’ve provoked this war.” Despite the outrage that jibe triggered, Mr. Farage doubled down on his remarks over the weekend. “It was obvious to me,” Mr. Farage said, “that the ever-eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union was giving this man” — a reference to President Putin — “a reason for his Russian people to say, ‘They’re coming for us again, and to go to war.” Added Mr. Farage: “Of course it’s his fault — he’s used what we’ve done as an excuse.”The first part of what he said was enough to spark a backlash, with Prime Minister Sunak telling reporters that Mr. Farage’s claim was “completely wrong and only plays into Putin’s hands.” Of Mr. Putin, Mr. Sunak said: “This is a man who deployed nerve agents on the streets of Britain, who’s doing deals with countries like North Korea.”Mr. Sunak said, “This kind of appeasement is dangerous for Britain’s security, the security of our allies that rely on us and only emboldens Putin further.”Mr. Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, called Mr. Farage’s comments “disgraceful” and said that “anyone who is standing for parliament ought to be really clear that Russia is the aggressor.”Mr. Farage has emerged as something of a wild card in Great Britain’s general election slated for July 4. His Reform UK appears to be poised to win more than a dozen seats in parliament. Mr. Farage is sticking to his guns. Writing in Saturday’s Telegraph, Mr. Farage stated that “the West’s errors in Ukraine have been catastrophic” and that he “won’t apologize for telling the truth.” Mr. Farage insisted that he is not and never has been “an apologist or supporter of Putin,” but that “what I have been saying for the past ten years is that the west has played into Putin’s hands, giving him the excuse to do what he wanted to do anyway.” Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.Before that, in 2014, it invaded and subsequently annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Mr. Farage noted in his article that, in his opinion, he saw Mr. Putin’s invasion coming a decade ago and that he is “one of the few political figures who has been consistently right and honest about Russia’s Ukraine war.”The consequences of expansion of the EU eastward and the question of Ukraine’s eventual NATO membership have long been the subject of debate, albeit mainly in America. In April 2022, Senator Rand Paul argued that Washington should not have backed Ukraine’s aspirations to join the Western military alliance.Dr. Paul told one of his favorite sparring partners, Secretary of State Blinken, then that “There is no justification for the invasion,” but “there are reasons for the invasion.” Unlike Mr. Farage, the Republican senator from Kentucky was not excoriated for his comments — some of which were echoed in remarks made last year to the Sun. Britain, though, is in full election mode, so almost anything the Reform UK leader says or does in the run up to the big vote is certain to come under heightened scrutiny. In any case, if it is attention Mr. Farage is seeking before July 4, it appears that he is getting it.

Britain’s Nigel Farage, Under Fire for Remarks on Ukraine, Insists He’s No Supporter of Putin

Britain’s Nigel Farage, Under Fire for Remarks on Ukraine, Insists He’s No Supporter of Putin

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