Populist firebrand politician and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is at the center of a storm of criticism and backlash over comments made in a Friday BBC interview wherein he pointed out that it was NATO’s constant eastward expansion that’s fundamentally to blame for the Russia-Ukraine war.

Farage made it clear that while President Putin made the decision to invade Ukraine, the Reform UK leader emphasized that: “We’ve provoked this war. Of course it’s his fault. He’s used what we’ve done.”

The Western military alliance’s expansion right up to Russia’s doorstep gave Putin the pretext and justification to tell the Russian population that “they’re coming for us again”. 

Via BBC

Media pundits, and eventually national government leaders, quickly pounced on his words and demanded an apology. Farage refused, and instead doubled down in a Telegraph newspaper op-ed where he unpacked his views further, writing that “if you poke the Russian bear with a stick, don’t be surprised if he responds.” He described the invasion as “immoral” but understandable from Moscow’s perspective.

Farage stressed that he’s never been an apologist of Putin and stands for Ukraine’s sovereignty, and yet it remains – he wrote – that he saw the war coming “a decade ago” and he’s been consistently correct and honest about the Ukraine conflict…

What I have been saying for the past 10 years is that the West has played into Putin’s hands, giving him the excuse to do what he wanted to do anyway.

Back in 2014, when the EU first offered Ukraine an accession agreement, I said in a speech in the European Parliament that “there will be a war in Ukraine”. Why? Because the expansion of NATO and the European Union was giving Putin a pretext he would not ignore.

He then stressed, “Don’t blame me for telling the truth about Putin’s war in Ukraine,” and declared that he wants to “set the record straight.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak responded directly to the interview, and lambasted the commentary as “completely wrong as it “only plays into Putin’s hands.” He and others charged Farage with “appeasement” which is “dangerous for Britain’s security.”

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey dismissed Farage as “an apologist for Putin” over the words, saying statements are “an insult to all Ukrainians who have suffered.” Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer piled on too, calling Farage’s perspective “disgraceful”. 

Farage in the Saturday op-ed further addressed his “slanderers” – writing that There is no easy solution to the war. But facing up to the truth about the causes and consequences must be a start. That is why I simply want to tell it as it is, and have done for a decade. Those slanderers who claim that telling the truth makes me a “mouthpiece for Putin” only reveal the weakness of their own case.”

Boris, you are a liar and a hypocrite.

I am glad you are no longer Prime Minister of this country. https://t.co/O9Rj4uRtot pic.twitter.com/VoQdx8zayt

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) June 24, 2024

Meanwhile former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who many reports say sabotaged peace negotiations between Moscow and Kiev in the early months of the war, also lashed out, writing on X that Farage is presenting “nauseating ahistorical drivel and more Kremlin propaganda.”

But this gave Farage opportunity to point out some inconvenient truths about ‘hypocrite’ Johnson’s own very clear historical record and past statements on the crisis…

Hi @BorisJohnson.

If you tell lies about me, I’ll tell the truth about you. pic.twitter.com/nVgPBwzQvC

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) June 24, 2024

Of course, no one expects Farage to back down from a fight, and likely he has lots more similar ammo at his disposal. The UK has in many ways been even more hawkish than Washington in its unfettered support to the Zelensky government, which included some of the earliest heavy arms shipments sent to the warzone in the opening months.

Interestingly, at around the very same time as Farage’s ‘controversial’ BBC remarks, former President Donald Trump gave an interview wherein he gave the same assessment…

Wow, Trump says that the war in Ukraine started because of NATO expansion.

Not sure if that’s the first time he says so – he definitely never was a big fan of NATO (and rightly so) – but still quite something to hear an American president say that.pic.twitter.com/P2jSd9gdlx

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) June 21, 2024

Both Trump and Farage see such difficult acknowledgements of the West’s role in fueling the conflict as a necessary step toward ceasefire talks and eventual peaceful settlement to the war. Both have also expressed that they wish to avoid a path to WW3 and that the current refusal to negotiate heightens that risk.