Nigel Farage said he ‘understood’ why ‘rational’ Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea

Nigel Farage said that he “understood” why Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea and that he believed the Russian president to be a “rational player” at that time.

First reported by The Times, the leader of Reform UK made the comments in 2022, saying that Putin acted because Crimea and territories in the Donbas region were “Russian-speaking communities” and “would rather be part of a greater Russia than part of somewhere else”.

It comes after The Independent reported in September that footage emerged of Mr Farage admitting that he knew Russians used cryptocurrency to cheat Ukraine war sanctions, but invested in the sector anyway. In an unearthed 2022 interview given just days after Putin declared war on Kyiv, Mr Farage credited Russian sanction busting investment for a 15 per cent spike in crypto values.

However, after the report in The Times, Mr Farage told The Independent: "I think Putin has lost all rationality and poses a great danger to the world. Ukraine has my full support."

The Reform leader made the newly-unearthed comments in a YouTube video called “What does the war in Ukraine mean for Bitcoin?” in the days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Mr Farage said: “I’d always thought Putin to be a rational player and I think everything we’ve seen since 2008, whether we’re talking about Georgia, whether we’re talking about the Crimea, whether we’re talking about the initial push into the Donbas region, I understood why he was doing it.

“He was doing it because they were Russian-speaking communities, who in many ways would rather be part of a greater Russia than part of somewhere else. I’m not justifying it, I’m explaining it.

“I didn’t for one moment think he would launch an all-out assault on Kyiv and western Ukraine. He’s done it; it makes me question now whether we’re dealing with a rational actor.”

Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the Ukrainian committee on foreign policy, described Farage’s comments as “very disturbing”, The Times reports.

He said: “Farage is not using this argument to invade Ireland just because they speak the English language. It’s an absurd argument.

“Hypothetically speaking, if he becomes the prime minister, it doesn’t bode well for Ukraine, it doesn’t bode well for international law and it doesn’t bode well for transatlantic solidarity and for Europe.”

Moscow's illegal annexation of Crimea on 18 March 2014 was only recognised internationally by countries such as North Korea and Sudan. By the time Russia annexed it, Crimea had been a part of Ukraine for 60 years.

Russia’s relations with the West plummeted to new lows following the annexation, with the United States, the European Union and other countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and its officials.

Concerns about Mr Farage’s attitude to Russia come after the former leader of Reform in Wales, Nathan Gill, was imprisoned for taking a Russian bribe.

In the past, Mr Farage has said that he “admires” Putin.

A Reform spokesperson said: “Nigel Farage has said that if he was prime minister he would support shooting down Russian fighter jets that entered NATO airspace.

“He has also said that he would use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine and that he may put British troops on the ground in the country as part of a UN peacekeeping force after a ceasefire.