LONDON — Two of Britain’s best-known Brexiteers are locked in a bitter feud over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Nigel Farage sparked a wave of criticism over the weekend when he said the “ever eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union” provoked Vladimir Putin to launch his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The words from the Reform party leader earned a stinging rebuke from Boris Johnson, Britain’s former prime minister and a staunch supporter of Ukraine — who in turn has been branded a “liar and a hypocrite” by Farage.
It’s a long way away from the once-friendly ties between the two, which saw Farage’s Brexit Party — since rebranded as Reform — stand aside in key seats to help Johnson’s Tories win election in 2019.
The row erupted when, in a combative interview with the BBC’s Panorama on Friday, Farage — who hopes to get elected to the House of Commons July 4 — was repeatedly pressed over his views on the Ukraine war.
He said he had been warning for decades about the increasing scope of both the NATO military alliance and the European Union, and he said: “We have provoked this war. Of course, it’s his [Putin’s] fault. He’s used what we’ve done.”
Despite condemnation from both Tory prime minister Rishi Sunak and Labour Leader Keir Starmer over the weekend, Farage doubled down in a Sunday Telegraph column.
Farage said he was “not and never have been an apologist or supporter of Putin,” describing the Russian president as “entirely wrong” to invade Ukraine.
But he added: “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.”
Johnson, in turn, dismissed Farage’s argument as “nauseating ahistorical drivel and more Kremlin propaganda.”
“Nobody provoked Putin,” he wrote on social media late Sunday. “Nobody ‘poked the bear with a stick.’ The people of Ukraine voted overwhelmingly in 1991 to be a sovereign and independent country. They were perfectly entitled to seek both NATO and EU membership.”
And he added: “There is only one person responsible for Russian aggression against Ukraine — both in 2014 and 2022 — and that is Putin. To try to spread the blame is morally repugnant and parroting Putin’s lies.”
‘Worst PM of modern times’
The feud shows no signs of slowing down. Speaking at a campaign rally in Maidstone, England on Monday, Farage branded Johnson the “worst prime minister of modern times.” He said the Tory ex-leader — who was ousted by his party in 2022 — “pretended to be a Conservative but he governed as a Green.”
Farage said he would take “no lectures” from either the Tories or Labour on foreign policy or defense, and said he would “campaign for peace wherever it is possible.”
“I would never, ever defend Putin and think his behavior in Ukraine and elsewhere has been reprehensible,” he added.
“But if we are going to think towards a peace at sometime in the not too distant future perhaps it might be helpful to understand what went wrong in the first place.”
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