RISHI Sunak and Volodymyr Zelensky have criticized Nigel Farage for his dangerous claims that the West provoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The inspiring Ukrainian leader said the reformist leader was “infected by the virus of Putinism”.
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Although the prime minister said the claims were “completely wrong” and “just playing into Putin’s hands.”
Former UKIP chief Farage was speaking during an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson last night, in which he argued that the EU and NATO gave Putin a “reason” to tell his people “they are coming for us again”.
And he was called out for past comments that appeared to suggest he admired Russian despot Vladimir Putin.
He was considered an appeaser for his comments.
However, he insisted that the blame for the conflict “of course” lay with the Kremlin tyrant.
A source in President Zelensky’s office told the BBC: “The virus of Putinism, unfortunately, infects people.”
There has been no official reaction from Kiev yet.
Former Defense Secretary Ben Wallace criticized the comments, saying: “Farage constantly lectures everyone about sovereignty but is happy to placate a dictator.”
And he accused Farage of “too often showing an unhealthy relationship with Kremlin talking points”.
The respected conservative added: “Farage refuses to see Putin for who he is.
“How can Farage express sympathy or admiration for a man who planted nerve agents on the streets of Britain?”
And he labeled him “more Chamberlain than Churchill”.
Referring to suggestions that he admired Putin, Farage responded to Robinson: “I said I didn’t like him as a person, but I admired him as a political operator because he was able to take control of running Russia.”
In a February 2022 tweet, Farage said the war was “a consequence of EU and NATO expansion.”
He defended the comment by saying he had been warning since the 1990s that “increasing eastward expansion” was dangerous.
He added: “We provoked this war. Of course, it is [President Putin’s] lack.”
He told the BBC: “I’m going to tell you what you don’t know. I stood up in the European Parliament in 2014 and said, and I quote, ‘there will be a war in Ukraine’.
“Why did I say that? It was obvious to me that the ever-eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union was giving this man a reason for his Russian people to say, ‘They’re coming after us another time’, and to go to war.”
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He shot back: “We provoked this war. It’s – you know, of course it’s his fault. He used what we did as an excuse.”
Building on Robinson’s comment, he added: “I’m the only person in British politics who predicted what would happen, and of course everyone said I was a pariah for daring to suggest it.
“George Robertson, the former Labor Minister who became Secretary General of NATO, has said in recent weeks that the war is a direct result of EU expansion.
“My judgment is way ahead of everyone else’s in understanding this.”
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