But Farage — whose right-wing populist party is challenging Britain’s Labour government in the polls — suggested Kyiv moving closer to the West should form part of a long-term solution.
Farage told a London press conference Wednesday he didn’t want to “pre-judge how these negotiations go” but said “if we can get Putin into a place, and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy into a place where we have a reasonable negotiation, I would have thought looking ahead, it’s probably essential that Ukraine joins NATO.”
Farage doubled down on that point on GB News, where he hosts a show, later that evening, stressing: “Ukraine now joining NATO is almost an essential part of this peace deal.”
During last year’s general election campaign, Farage criticized NATO’s eastward expansion, arguing that this allowed Putin to justify his invasion.
“We have provoked this war,” Farage said at the time, but he added. “Of course, it’s his [Putin’s] fault. He’s used what we’ve done.”
The comments come as Britain’s Labour government tries to take on Farage more directly, including painting him as more sympathetic to Putin.