Britain’s Reform Party’s Nigel Farage defends claims the West provoked the Ukraine war

LONDON — British populist politician Nigel Farage has reiterated his claims that the West provoked Russia’s war in Ukraine, despite backlash from Westminster in the crucial final weeks of the British election campaign.

Writing in the Telegraph newspaper on Saturday, Britain’s reform leader and Brexit figurehead said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in 2022 was “immoral”, but added that “if you poke the Russian bear with a stick, don’t be surprised if he responds.”

He was defending remarks made Friday in a BBC interview, in which he said the eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union had given Putin an excuse to tell the Russians “that they are coming for us again” and to go to war.

“We caused this war. Of course it’s his fault. He used what we did,” Farage said on Friday.

Clarifying his comments on Saturday, Farage said he was not and has never been “an apologist or supporter of Putin”, but claimed he “saw the war coming” and that the West had “plays into Putin’s hands.”

“As I have made clear many times since then, if you hit the Russian bear with a stick, don’t be surprised if he responds. And if you have neither the means nor the political will to make him face, poke a bear is obviously not a good foreign policy.”

He also recalled comments made to the European Parliament in 2014 – shortly after Russia’s annexation of Crimea – in which he questioned NATO military exercises in Ukraine.

“Do we really want to wage a war against Putin? Because if we do, we will definitely do it the right way,” he said at the time.

Farage’s remarks mirror those of a close friend and ally, former President Donald Trump, who in an episode of the “All In” podcast last week reiterated his position that NATO military expansion was “provocative” for Russia and that the war would not have happened without his leadership.

Reform UK is rapidly gaining popularity following Farage’s return as party leader last month, on the eve of Britain’s July 4 election. The right-wing party has 18% of the vote, just behind the Tory incumbents’ 20%, according to a YouGov poll taken before Farage’s comments. The Labor Party is seen with a large lead at 36%.

The insurgent politician’s comments, however, drew sharp criticism from leaders on both ends of the political spectrum.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Saturday condemned the comments as “completely false”, adding that the position “also plays into Putin’s hands”.

“This type of appeasement is dangerous for the security of Britain, for the security of our allies who rely on us, and only emboldens Putin further,” he told reporters.

Labor leader Keir Starmer called the comments “shameful” and said Putin bore “full responsibility” for the invasion.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson also called the comments “sickening ahistorical nonsense” and “Kremlin propaganda” in an article on X.

Political commentator Timothy Ash, meanwhile, discredited Farage’s claim that Ukraine’s NATO presence in 2014 had provoked Moscow, pointing out that support for kyiv’s membership in the military alliance was then “very low “.

“Ukraine was not going to join NATO in 2014, nor in 2022, and Moscow knew it. Putin just wanted to create a PR excuse to invade, and Farage is playing on the Putin narrative, a tool for Putin” , Ash, who is a research associate in the Russia and Eurasia program at Chatham House, told CNBC via email on Monday.

“Putin invaded Ukraine not because of EU or NATO enlargement, but because of a policy of enlargement of Russia – of Greater Russia and Putin’s obsession to recreate the USSR, as he declared long ago that the collapse of the USSR was the biggest mistake of the 20th century “It was all about Russian colonial ambition and enlargement”, a-. he added.

In a video released on Saturday