Nigel Farage denies explosive Russia hyperlink and makes lawyer declare ‘I’m so offended’

Nigel Farage is under fire after suggesting the West provoked Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Reform UK leader has faced accusations that he is repeating Vladimir Putin’s justification for waging a war in Ukraine. Mr Farage has denied supporting the Russian president and responded furiously after a comment was featured in the Mail on Sunday from a spokesman for Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky. “The virus of Putinism, unfortunately, infects people,” the comment said.

In a more than five-minute long rant on social media, Mr Farage branded the newspaper’s front page a “disgrace”. The front said: “Zelensky: Farage is infected with ‘virus of Putin'”. Mr Farage said he has instructed lawyers to take action against the paper, adding: “I was so angry about the sheer dishonesty, about a breach of the Editors’ Code, that I’ve gone to Carter Ruck, we’ve instructed Carter Ruck and they’ve written already to the Mail on Sunday.”

He said he was also contacted by the Daily Mail with a claim that someone who works with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had described Mr Farage as an “ally”. Mr Farage denied that he has links to Russia, instead claiming the Daily Mail was “collaborating” with the Kremlin.

Commentator and Mirror journalist Kevin Maguire criticised Mr Farage for attacking the free press. “Self-appointed leader supposedly championing free speech pays lawyers to cancel those who cross him,” he said. “Please, please, please let Mr Angry try to sue Zelensky rather than the Mail. Please.”

The row kicked off on Friday after Mr Farage blamed NATO expansion for the war in Ukraine in an interview with BBC Panorama. In a video responding to backlash, posted on Sunday evening, Mr Farage said he was not an “apologist” for the Russian president but added that “certainly we gave him a very good reason” to start war in Ukraine.

He went on: “What I did say to Nick Robinson on the BBC the other day was that 10 years ago, I predicted there would be a war in Ukraine because I thought that Putin – a bad man, clever, but a bad man – would use EU and NATO expansion as a reason to say to his people: ‘Look they’re coming for us, we’ve got to go the other way.”

The former Ukip leader also tweeted in response to Boris Johnson having accused him of a “morally repugnant” repetition of Putin’s justification for the invasion of Ukraine. In a post on X, Mr Farage called the ex-PM a “liar” and a “hypocrite” and posted two newspaper articles from 2016 and 2022 headlined “Boris blames EU for war in Ukraine” and “Boris Johnson blamed EU for Russia’s 2014 attacks on Ukraine and was branded ‘Putin apologist”‘.

Both Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak condemned Mr Farage’s comments. The PM said the Reform UK leader was “completely wrong and only plays into Putin’s hands”, while Mr Starmer called the remarks “disgraceful”. James Cleverly accused Mr Farage of “victim blaming of the worst order” for suggesting the West provoked Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The Home Secretary said it was “completely wrong” for a British politician to be “echoing” Putin’s justification for the war.

It comes as the Tories are in turmoil over a betting scandal, with Mr Sunak facing action to suspend people involved. Five people linked to the party, including two candidates, are under investigation by the Gambling Commission over allegedly making bets on the timing of the General Election.