Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, criticized for saying West provoked Putin to invade Ukraine

By PAN PYLAS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing Reform U.K. party, is facing wide-ranging criticism over his claim that the West provoked Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine. In a BBC television interview broadcast Friday evening, Farage drew a link between the expansion of NATO and the European Union eastwards over the past few decades and the invasion. Farage’s critics from across the political spectrum slammed his statement, with many describing him as a Putin apologist. This is the first general election that Reform U.K. is contesting and it has enjoyed a lift in the polls, mainly at the expense of the governing Conservatives.