In the West, Nigel Farage blamed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, arguing that Putin was “provoked” by the eastward expansion of the European Union and NATO.

The Reform UK leader told the BBC that Vladimir Putin was “of course” to blame for the war, but added that the enlargement of the EU and NATO gave him an “occasion” to tell the Russian people “they are coming for us again”.

In an interview with the BBC, Farage was asked to explain earlier statements in 2014 in which he said Vladimir Putin was the world leader he most admired.

“I said I disliked him as a person, but I admired him as a politician because he managed to take control of the administration of Russia,” Farage justified his view.

Then asked about a social media post in February 2022, which claimed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “a consequence of EU and NATO expansion”, Farage said he had argued since the 1990s that “continued expansion to the east” of NATO and the EU would give President Putin “a reason to tell the Russian people that they are coming for us again and to go to war.”

Sticking to his views, he added that “we caused this war. Of course, it’s President Putin’s fault.”

In the interview, Farage also accused the Conservatives of failing to deliver on Brexit.

As leader of UKIP, he was a key figure in the campaign to leave the EU. Asked if he stood by his earlier claim, Farage said: “No, we haven’t failed, but we haven’t succeeded. “It can’t be a failure. We left the European Union. Now we have governmental autonomy, he stressed.