Nigel Farage has said that by extending the European Union and NATO military alliance eastward, the West "provoked" Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
According to the BBC, the head of Reform UK, President Vladimir Putin was "of course" to blame for the conflict.
However, he went on, saying that he had "reason" to warn the Russian people that "they're coming for us again" because of the EU and NATO's growth.
During an interview with Nick Robinson of the BBC, Mr. Farage faced questions on his judgment and previous remarks, such as his 2014 designation of Russian President Vladimir Putin as the global leader he most liked.
"I said I disliked him as a person, but admired him as a political operator because he's managed to take control of running Russia," said Mr. Farage.
Subsequently, in February 2022, he faced pressure for a social media post in which he said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was "a result of EU and NATO expansion."
Since the 1990s, Mr. Farage said, he has been making the case that President Putin has "a reason to [give] his Russian people to say they're coming for us again and to go to war" due to "the ever eastward expansion" of the EU and NATO.
"We provoked this war," he continued. Naturally, President Putin is to blame."
Conservative Home Secretary James Cleverly responded to the interview by saying that Mr. Farage was "echoing Putin’s vile justification for the brutal invasion of Ukraine."
Mr. Farage is "unfit for any political office in our country, let alone leading a serious party in Parliament," according to remarks made by the Labour Party's defense spokesperson John Healey.
The former NATO Secretary General, Lord George Robertson, also reacted to Mr. Farage's allegation, accusing him of "parroting the Kremlin Line" and "producing new excuses for the brutal, unprovoked attack".
The head of Reform UK said in the interview that Lord Robertson had acknowledged that the conflict was brought on by EU enlargement.
The Labour peer denied stating so while calling Mr. Farage's claim "complete nonsense" in an interview with BBC Radio 4's World Tonight.
"Saying that we provoked Russia is like saying that if you buy a burglar alarm, in some way you provoke burglars."
Furthermore, Mr. Farage was charged of echoing "Kremlin talking points" by Guy Verhofstadt, a well-known Belgian MEP and longtime opponent of the leader.
"In the European Parliament, Farage always defended Putin" , he said.
"Every vote for Farage is celebrated in Moscow!"
In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine on a large scale. It came after the Donbas and Crimean territories were taken over in 2014.
The European Union and NATO, which consists of 32 nations in Europe and North America, do not include Ukraine as a member.
But after the Russian invasion, the nation sought to join both blocs.
Twelve nations, including the US, UK, Canada, and France, joined NATO in 1949.
Hungary, Poland, and Estonia were among the several Eastern European nations who joined when the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991.
Since the 1990s, the EU has grown as well; many nations from eastern Europe joined in 2004.
Additionally, Mr. Farage said in the interview that the Conservatives were not delivering on Brexit.
He played a significant role in the movement to exit the EU as the head of UKIP.
Though Boris Johnson's "Get Brexit Done" campaign slogan dominated the 2019 general election, the subject has not been heavily covered in the current campaign.
When asked whether Mr. Farage still believed that Brexit had failed, he said, "No, it's not a failure, but we failed to deliver."
It cannot be an inability. The European Union has lost us. We can now rule ourselves."
However, he went on, saying, "Those who supported Brexit because they thought immigration would decline have been let down by it."
Since the UK exited the EU in 2021, net migration—the difference between the number of persons entering to reside in the UK and those leaving—has increased significantly.
This has been fueled by immigrants to the UK who are not EU citizens.
In 2022, net migration hit all-time highs before somewhat declining the following year.
In order to alleviate strain on housing and public services, boost wages, and "protect our culture identity and values," Reform UK has said that it supports a ban on non-essential immigration.
The Conservatives were also criticized by Mr. Farage for "binning" their pledge to repeal 4,000 EU legislation.
When asked whether he was merely placing the blame elsewhere, Mr. Farage said, "If I were in charge, it would be very, very different." They didn't do that, of course.
The Conservative Party mishandled Brexit, seeing it as a political opportunity that they could not deliver on.
In addition, Mr. Farage was questioned about his views on climate change and whether he thought it was not really a "crisis".
"I do think ever since the end of the 1980s that perhaps there's been a bit of hype surrounding this, and I think that perhaps is wrong," he said.
"All we ever speak of is fear rather than solutions."
"We spend too much time hyperventilating about the problem instead of considering realistic and logical solutions," he said.
Mr. Farage called the net zero objectives of the Labour and Tory parties "nonsense" and said that by abandoning their climate commitments, £30 billion could be saved annually.
In addition, he faced criticism for Reform's screening practices when the party disqualified many prospective candidates for parliament due to unpleasant or improper remarks.
The party claims it did not complete the necessary screening before to the election, placing the responsibility on a firm it hired to investigate potential candidates' backgrounds.
When asked why some individuals with extremist opinions seemed to support his cause, Mr. Farage said, "They're not there because of me."
He maintained that he had not been involved in the day-to-day operations of the party for more than three years, even though he was a co-founder and honorary president of the organization.These candidates were chosen before I declared my intention to be actively involved in the party.
It was not until the second full week of the election campaign that Mr. Farage unseated Richard Tice as leader of the Reform Party.
Simultaneously, he declared his intention to seek for office in Clacton, after his earlier declaration that he would not participate in the July election.
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