UK's Nigel Farage doubles down on controversial Ukraine/Putin comments.

Nigel Farage has doubled down on his controversial claim that "Russia was provoked into launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the expansion of NATO and the EU."

In an article for The Telegraph on June 22, titled "The West’s errors in Ukraine have been catastrophic. I won’t apologize for telling the truth," Farage denied he was "an apologist or supporter of Putin."

The politician, who heads a newly-resurgent Reform UK party, drew widespread criticism on June 20 when he said the EU and NATO "provoked" Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by expanding eastwards.

Farage's comments echo Kremlin disinformation lines used to justify the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, namely that Russia was "forced" to start the war to "protect itself" from the threat from NATO.

The stance ignores the fact NATO is a defensive alliance and one of the main motivating factors for countries in Eastern Europe – including Ukraine – to join, is an understanding of the Kremlin's imperialist ambitions rooted in a long and bloody history of falling victim to it.

Russia has invaded two European countries this century – Ukraine and Georgia, neither of which are members of the EU or NATO.

Sweden and Finland both joined NATO as a direct response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Putin himself has in recent years revived a distorted version of Russia's imperialist past in an attempt to create a new national identity and convince Russia's citizenry that in order to survive, it must wage war on the West.

In a 2021 essay titled "On the historical unity of the Russians and Ukrainians," often overlooked by those saying Russia was provoked into invading Ukraine, Putin laid out what he saw as Russia's rightful claim to Ukraine.

From the analysis of the Atlantic Council: In one particularly ominous passage, he openly questions the legitimacy of Ukraine’s borders and argues that much of modern-day Ukraine occupies historically Russian lands, before stating matter of factly, “Russia was robbed.” Elsewhere, he hints at a fresh annexation of Ukrainian territory, claiming, “I am becoming more and more convinced of this: Kyiv simply does not need Donbas.”

Putin ends his lengthy treatise by appearing to suggest that Ukrainian statehood itself ultimately depends on Moscow’s consent, declaring, “I am confident that true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia.”

Despite being around 5,500 words long, the essay only mentions NATO once in a paragraph that falsely claimed the "Ukrainian authorities, security services and armed forces" were under the influence of "NATO infrastructure."

But in June 2022, Putin admitted openly the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was an imperial war to "return" Russian lands.

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