Nigel Farage has said the West “provoked” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by expanding the European Union-NATO military alliance eastward.
The leader of Reform UK told the BBC that “of course” there was war President Vladimir Putin‘s fault.
But he added that the expansion of the EU and NATO gave him a “reason” to tell the Russian people “they are coming after us again.”
In an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson, Farage was challenged for his judgment and past statements, including when he named Russian President Vladimir Putin as the world leader he most admired in 2014.
“I said I hated him as a person but admired him as a political actor because he managed to take control of Russia’s government,” Farage said.
He was then pressured over a social media post in February 2022 when he claimed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “a consequence of EU and NATO expansion”.
Farage said he had argued since the 1990s that “the ever eastward expansion” of the NATO military alliance and the EU gave President Putin “a reason to [give to] his Russian people to say that they are coming for us again and going to war.”
He added: “We provoked this war. Of course that’s true [President Putin’s] debt.”
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This followed the occupation of the Crimea and Donbas regions in 2014.
Ukraine is not a member of the EU or NATO, which consists of 32 countries in Europe and North America.
However, the country applied to join both blocs after the Russian invasion.
NATO was founded in 1949 by twelve countries, including the US, Great Britain, Canada and France.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, many Eastern European countries joined, including Hungary, Poland and Estonia.
The EU has also expanded since the 1990s, with a number of Eastern European countries joining in 2004.
In the interview, Farage also accused the Conservatives of failing to deliver Brexit.
As leader of UKIP, he was a key figure in the campaign to leave the EU.
Although the issue dominated the 2019 general election, with Boris Johnson campaigning under the slogan ‘Get Brexit Done’, it has not featured prominently in the current campaign.
Asked whether he stood by his earlier claim that Brexit had failed, Farage said: “No, it is not a failure, but we have failed to deliver on the results.
“It cannot be a failure. We have left the European Union. We now have self-government.”
But he added: “Brexit has failed those who voted for it, in the belief that immigration levels would be reduced.”
Net migration – the difference between the number of people coming to live in Britain and those leaving – has risen sharply since 2021, when Britain left the EU.
This is caused by non-EU nationals coming to Britain.
Net migration reached a record level in 2022, but declined slightly the following year.
Reform UK has said it supports a freeze on non-essential immigration to ease pressure on housing and public services, increase wages and “protect our cultural identity and values”.
Farage also criticized the Conservatives for ‘destroying’ their pledge to scrap 4,000 EU laws.
Farage wondered if he was just blaming others: ‘If you put me in charge it would be very, very different. Of course they didn’t.
“The Conservative Party never believed in Brexit… They picked it up as a political opportunity and they failed to deliver on it.”
Mr Farage also faced questions about his position on climate change and whether he believed it was not really a “crisis”.
“I think there’s been maybe a little bit of hype around this topic since the late 1980s, and I think that might be wrong,” he said.
“All we’re talking about is fear instead of solutions.”
He added: “We spend too much time hyperventilating about the problem rather than thinking practically and logically about what we can do.”
Mr Farage branded Labour’s and Tory’s Net Zero policies ‘nonsense’ and claimed £30 billion a year could be saved by dropping their climate pledges.
Mr Farage took over as leader of reforms in the second full week of the election campaign, although he helped found the party.
At the same time he announced he would stand as a candidate in Clacton, having previously said he would not stand in the July election.
In the run-up to the elections, the BBC interviews major party leaders in The Panorama Interviews with Nick Robinson. You can watch the interview with Nigel Farage at 7pm on BBC One or BBC iPlayer.
You can find a full list of candidates in the Clacton constituency here.
