UK's Farage accused of 'Kremlin propaganda' after claiming the West provoked Ukraine invasion

LONDON — Populist British politician Nigel Farage doubled down on claims that the West provoked Russia's war in Ukraine despite facing backlash from Westminster in the crucial final weeks of the U.K. election campaign.

Writing in the Telegraph newspaper on Saturday, the Reform UK leader and Brexit figurehead said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's 2022 full-scale invasion was "immoral" but added that "if you poke the Russian bear with a stick, don't be surprised if he responds."

He was defending comments made Friday in a BBC interview, in which he said that the eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union had given Putin a pretext to tell Russians "they're coming for us again" and to go to war.

"We've provoked this war. Of course it's his fault. He's used what we've done," Farage said Friday.

Clarifying his comments Saturday, Farage said he was not and never has been "an apologist or supporter of Putin," but claimed that he "saw the war coming" and that the West has "played into Putin's hands."

"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."

He also recalled comments made to the European Parliament in 2014 — shortly after Russia's annexation of Crimea — in which he questioned NATO's military exercises in Ukraine.

"Do we actually want to have a war with Putin? Because if we do, we are certainly going about it the right way," he said at the time.

Farage's remarks mirror those of close friend and ally former President Donald Trump, who on an episode of the "All In" podcast last week reiterated his position that