LONDON (AP) — Criticism is pouring in once morest Nigel Farage, the leader of a newly formed right-wing party seeking to siphon votes from the Conservatives in the July 4 election, for saying the West provoked Russian President Vladimir Putin into invading Ukraine.
In an interview with the BBC broadcast last night, Farage, leader of the Reform UK party, linked the expansion of Nato and the European Union to the invasion. Claiming that he warned of the possibility of war in Ukraine in 2014 when he was a member of the European Parliament, Farage said: “We provoked this war.”
It is unclear whether his warning came before or following Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in February 2014.
“It was obvious to me that the eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union was giving this man a reason to say to his people, ‘They’re coming for us once more’ and to go to war,” Farage said. “Of course it’s his fault. He used what we did as an excuse.”
Criticism of Farage quickly followed, with some even calling him a Putin apologist.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said it is “completely wrong” to say the West encouraged Putin to invade Ukraine.
“This is a man who has deployed nerve poisons on the streets of Britain, who is signing deals with countries like North Korea,” Sunak said. “And this kind of appeasement is dangerous for Britain’s security, for the security of our allies who depend on us, and it will only embolden Putin.”
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2024-07-06 17:59:20
