Don’t blame me for telling the truth about Putin’s war in Ukraine. Facing up the facts about the mistakes of the past has to be the first step towards the peaceful future we all want to see.

In my BBC Panorama interview on Friday, Nick Robinson outrageously accused me of “echoing” Russian president Vladimir Putin’s excuses for his invasion of Ukraine. The political establishment has since been busy echoing that slur.

So, let me set the record straight. I am not and never have been an apologist or supporter of Putin. His invasion of Ukraine was immoral, outrageous and indefensible. As a champion of national sovereignty, I believe that Putin was entirely wrong to invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine. Nobody can fairly accuse me of being an appeaser. I have never sought to justify Putin’s invasion in any way and I’m not now.

But that doesn’t change the fact that I saw it coming a decade ago, warned that it was coming and am one of the few political figures who has been consistently right and honest about Russia’s Ukraine war.

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.

Back in 2014, when the EU first offered Ukraine an accession agreement, I said in a speech in the European Parliament that “there will be a war in Ukraine”. Why? Because the expansion of NATO and the European Union was giving Putin a pretext he would not ignore.

As I have made clear on multiple occasions since then, if you poke the Russian bear with a stick, don’t be surprised if he responds. And if you have neither the means nor the political will to face him down, poking a bear is obviously not good foreign policy.

Even though he was on the radio last night (Friday) denying it, former Labour cabinet minister George Robertson, who later became head of NATO, has also recently made clear that Putin’s fears about EU expansion helped cause the war. He is on the record – twice - in his New Statesman article in May and a BBC interview in February of this year.

And it’s not only Ukraine. The West’s diplomatic blunder over how to tackle Putin’s mix of paranoia and assertiveness was just one of many disastrous interventions in the two decades since Tony Blair’s Labour government joined the catastrophic invasion of Iraq (which I opposed).

Western statesmen have too often tried to dress up in white cowboy hats and pose as heroes saving the world. We have witnessed vanity taking the place of reason in foreign policy, and the result has been to destabilise a series of countries with dire effects both there and here.

We should recall how, around the same time as tensions with Russia were being ramped up, US President Obama and his secretary of state Hilary Clinton, with the full support of David Cameron’s Tory government, reduced Libya to a smoking ruin in order to remove the dictator Gaddafi.

I have consistently pointed out the dangers of the West’s foreign policy. It gives me no pleasure to say that I have been proved right and that the Tories and Labour have been wrong.

Of course I understand that many British people strongly sympathise with the resilient Ukrainians. The fog of war always makes it hard to be sure of casualty figures, but US intelligence sources suggested last year that almost half a million had been killed or wounded on both sides in the conflict. It is a meat grinder for both Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, with no apparent end to the slaughter in sight.

The UK alone has pledged £12.5 billion to Ukraine in military support and other aid. The war has also had a drastic impact on the European and British economies, contributing to the big jump in everything from energy costs and food prices to interest rates, intensifying the cost-of-living crisis that has hit millions of hard-pressed British households.

There is no easy solution to the war. But facing up to the truth about the causes and consequences must be a start. That is why I simply want to tell it as it is, and have done for a decade. Those slanderers who claim that telling the truth makes me a “mouthpiece for Putin” only reveal the weakness of their own case.

There is an issue of British democracy here, too. The escalation of British support for the war in Ukraine has not even been an issue in this election campaign, since the old parties all agree with it. Am I, as the leader of Reform UK, a party that is now running second in major polls, not even allowed to question this political conformism?

What real democratic choice could there be, if we are all expected to say the same thing and libelled if we refuse to do so? At election time, more than ever, free speech remains the lifeblood of our democracy.

My question for voters is this. Who would you trust most to shape the future of UK foreign policy? Me, who saw the disastrous wars in Ukraine and elsewhere coming down the line and repeatedly warned against them? Or the establishment parties who helped to make them happen?

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Nigel Farage doubles down on Ukraine claims following criticism from Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer

Nigel Farage has doubled down on his claims that the West provoked Vladimir Putin into invading Ukraine.

The Reform UK leader has insisted he will not apologise for remarks he made during a BBC Panorama interview, which have prompted criticism from both Sir Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak.

Writing in the Telegraph on Saturday, Mr Farage said he was not an “apologist or supporter of Putin” and described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “indefensible”, but claimed the West had made “catastrophic” errors during the conflict.

During his earlier BBC interview he claimed “we provoked this war”, while drawing a link between Nato and European Union expansion seen in recent decades and the conflict in eastern Europe.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak said Mr Farage was “completely wrong and only plays into Putin’s hands”, and likened his comments to appeasement of the Russian president.

Labour leader Sir Keir called Mr Farage’s remarks “disgraceful” and said anyone standing for Parliament should make clear Russia is the aggressor in the conflict.

Writing in the Telegraph newspaper, in an article entitled “the West’s errors in Ukraine have been catastrophic. I won’t apologise for telling the truth”, Mr Farage said the “political establishment” had been echoing a “slur” about him.

“I am not and never have been an apologist or supporter of Putin,” he wrote. “His invasion of Ukraine was immoral, outrageous and indefensible. As a champion of national sovereignty, I believe that Putin was entirely wrong to invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine.

“Nobody can fairly accuse me of being an appeaser. I have never sought to justify Putin’s invasion in any way and I’m not now.”

He added: “But that doesn’t change the fact that I saw it coming a decade ago, warned that it was coming and am one of the few political figures who has been consistently right and honest about Russia’s Ukraine war.

“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.”

The Reform leader, in his BBC interview broadcast on Thursday night, drew a link between Nato and European Union expansion in recent decades and the conflict in eastern Europe.

“It was obvious to me that the ever-eastward expansion of Nato and the European Union was giving this man a reason to his Russian people to say, ‘they’re coming for us again’ and to go to war,” he told the BBC Panorama special.

Mr Farage said he had been making similar comments “since the 1990s, ever since the fall of the (Berlin) wall”, and added: “Hang on a second, we provoked this war.”

Mr Sunak said the comment was “completely wrong and only plays into Putin’s hands”.

The Prime Minister added: “This is a man (Mr Putin) who deployed nerve agent on the streets of Britain, who is doing deals with countries like North Korea, and this kind of appeasement is dangerous for Britain’s security, the security of our allies that rely on us, and only emboldens Putin further.”

Sir Keir meanwhile said: “Anyone who is standing for Parliament ought to be really clear that Russia is the aggressor, Putin bears responsibility, and that we stand with Ukraine, as we have done from the beginning of this conflict, and Parliament has spoken with one voice on this since the beginning of the conflict.”

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said he did not “share any values” with Mr Farage, while Scottish First Minister John Swinney accused the Reform leader of being a “traitor to the interests of the people on these islands”.

Conservative former defence secretary Ben Wallace had earlier in the day joked about Mr Farage’s claims to have predicted the likelihood of the war in Ukraine.

“I think Nigel Farage is a bit like that pub bore we have all met at the end of the bar who often says if ‘I was running the country’ and presents very simplistic answers to actually I am afraid in the 21st century complex problems,” Mr Wallace told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.

He also claimed the Reform leader need to learn to “deal with the real world” of politics.

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Farage ‘completely wrong’ and appeasing Putin with Ukraine claims, says Sunak

Nigel Farage’s claim the West provoked Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was “completely wrong and only plays into Putin’s hands”, Rishi Sunak has said.

The Prime Minister likened the Reform UK leader’s remarks in a BBC Panorama interview to appeasement of the Russian president’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr Farage claimed “we provoked this war” in the interview, while drawing a link between Nato and European Union expansion in recent decades and the conflict in eastern Europe.

This is a man (Mr Putin) who deployed nerve agent on the streets of Britain, who is doing deals with countries like North Korea, and this kind of appeasement is dangerous for Britain's security, the security of our allies that rely on us, and only emboldens Putin further.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

Asked by broadcasters about the remarks during an election campaign visit in London, Mr Sunak said: “What he said was completely wrong and only plays into Putin’s hands.”

The Prime Minister added: “This is a man (Mr Putin) who deployed nerve agent on the streets of Britain, who is doing deals with countries like North Korea, and this kind of appeasement is dangerous for Britain’s security, the security of our allies that rely on us, and only emboldens Putin further.”

Mr Sunak’s criticism follows hot on the heels of his former defence secretary Ben Wallace, who likened Mr Farage to a “pub bore” over his comments, and suggested the Reform leader does not understand the “real world” of politics.

Appearing on the Panorama Interviews on BBC One on Friday, Mr Farage faced questions about his opinion of Mr Putin.

He replied: “I said I disliked him as a person, but I admired him as a political operator because he’s managed to take control of running Russia.”

Mr Putin has served continuously as either Russian president or prime minister since 1999, with elections which have been described as “rigged”.

Mr Farage, a former member of the European Parliament, also said: “Right, I’ll tell you what you don’t know, I stood up in the European Parliament in 2014 and I 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 to his Russian people to say, ‘They’re coming for us again’ and to go to war.”

Mr Farage went on to say he had been making similar comments “since the 1990s, ever since the fall of the (Berlin) Wall”, and added: “Hang on a second, we provoked this war.

“It’s, you know, of course it’s his fault – he’s used what we’ve done as an excuse.”

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Nigel Farage has defended his claim that the West provoked Russia's invasion of Ukraine, following condemnation from leaders across the political spectrum.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the Reform UK leader said he had never been an "apologist or supporter of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin" but that "if you poke the Russian bear with a stick, don’t be surprised if he responds".

In an earlier BBC Panorama interview, Mr Farage said the war was "of course" Mr Putin's fault but that the expansion of the EU and Nato had given him a reason to tell the Russian people "they're coming for us again".

Responding to the interview, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the comment was "completely wrong and only plays into Putin's hands," accusing Mr Farage of “appeasement” that was “dangerous for Britain’s security”.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer described the comments as "disgraceful", while Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey called Mr Farage "an apologist for Putin". The SNP said it was "an insult to all Ukrainians who have suffered."

In his Telegraph piece, Mr Farage wrote: "Don’t blame me for telling the truth about Putin’s war in Ukraine," adding that he wanted to "set the record straight".

"[The] invasion of Ukraine was immoral, outrageous and indefensible. As a champion of national sovereignty, I believe that Putin was entirely wrong to invade the sovereign nation of Ukraine," he wrote.

"Nobody can fairly accuse me of being an appeaser. I have never sought to justify Putin’s invasion in any way and I’m not now.

"But that doesn’t change the fact that I saw it coming a decade ago, warned that it was coming and am one of the few political figures who has been consistently right and honest about Russia’s Ukraine war.

"As I have made clear on multiple occasions since then, if you poke the Russian bear with a stick, don’t be surprised if he responds. And if you have neither the means nor the political will to face him down, poking a bear is obviously not good foreign policy."

'Completely wrong'

Speaking earlier, Mr Sunak said Mr Farage's comments to the BBC were "completely wrong and only plays into Putin's hands".

He added: "This is a man [Mr Putin] who deployed nerve agent on the streets of Britain, who is doing deals with countries like North Korea, and this kind of appeasement is dangerous for Britain's security, the security of our allies that rely on us, and only emboldens Putin further."

Sir Keir, meanwhile, said Mr Putin “bears sole responsibility” for the invasion of Ukraine and that “anybody who wants to stand to be a representative in our Parliament should be really clear... that we stand against that aggression".

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: “When I travel around our country in cities, towns and villages, British people fly the Ukrainian flag as a symbol of solidarity and hope for their future.

"Nigel Farage has proved he is on the side of Putin, not the side of freedom.”

The SNP's Brendan O'Hara told The National: "In defending the indefensible, Farage has once again shown how out of touch his views are with voters in Scotland."

In his Panorama interview, the former UKIP and Brexit Party leader was asked by Nick Robinson about his past comments on Mr Putin.

"I said I disliked him as a person, but I admired him as a political operator because he's managed to take control of running Russia," he replied.

He said it had been "obvious" to him for many years "that the ever-eastward expansion of Nato and the European Union was giving this man a reason to his Russian people to say, 'They're coming for us again' and to go to war".

Pressed further, he added: "We provoked this war. It's, you know, of course it's his fault - he's used what we've done as an excuse."

After the interview aired on Friday, Mr Farage, a former member of the European Parliament, said on X that he was "one of the few figures that have been consistent and honest about the war with Russia".

Alongside the new statement, he reposted a speech in the European Parliament from 2014 in which he called for the West to "stop playing war games with Putin."

Labour's shadow defence secretary John Healey said the remarks made the Reform UK leader "unfit for any political office in our country, let alone leading a serious party in Parliament."

The Ukrainian presidency has told the BBC it will not be putting out an official statement on Mr Farage’s comments.

But a source in the presidential office warned about the "virus of Putinism and the rise of war propaganda", adding: "The task of civilized humanity is to fight this virus in the bud.”

Reform UK has been gaining ground on the Conservatives in the opinion polls since Mr Farage announced he was returning to front-line politics as the party's leader shortly after the general election campaign got under way.

He has said his aim is for Reform to replace the Conservatives as the official opposition to Labour, which he says is certain to gain power on 4 July, although polling suggests the party may win only handful of seats at this election.

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