NIGEL Farage was branded an appeaser after suggesting the West provoked Vladimir Putin into invading Ukraine.
The Reform UK boss said tonight "we provoked this war" citing the expansion of NATO and the European Union eastwards.
But he insisted that the blame for the conflict "of course" lay with the Kremlin tyrant.
However ex-Defence Secretary Ben Wallace slammed the comments, saying: "Farage constantly lectures everyone about sovereignty but is happy to placate a dictator."
And he accused Farage of "too often showing an unhealthy relationship with the Kremlin's talking points".
Putin accused of surrounding himself with same 'actors' at series of events
The respected Tory added: "Farage refuses to see Putin for what he is.
"How can Farage express sympathy or admiration for a man who deployed nerve agents on the streets of Britain?"
And he branded him "more Chamberlain than Churchill".
Mr Farage argued in an interview with the BBC's Nick Robinson that the EU and NATO have given Putin a "reason" to tell his people "they're coming for us again".
And he was challenged on previous comments that appeared to suggest he admired Putin.
However Farage hit back: "I said I disliked him as a person, but admired him as a political operator because he's managed to take control of running Russia."
Yet in a tweet from February 2022, Mr Farage said the war was "a consequence of EU and NATO expansion".
He defended the comment saying he had been warning since the 1990s that "the ever eastward expansion" was dangerous.
He added: "We provoked this war. Of course, it's [President Putin's] fault."
He told the BBC: "I'll tell you what you don't know. I stood up in the European Parliament in 2014 and I said, and I quote, 'there will be a war in Ukraine'.
Catholics across the world pray for Pope Benedict XVI as his body lies in state
"Why did I say that? It was obvious to me that the ever-eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union was giving this man a reason to his Russian people to say, 'They're coming for us again,' and to go to war."
He hit out: "We provoked this war. It's – you know, of course it's his fault. He's used what we've done as an excuse."
Picked up on the comment by Robinson, he added: "I'm the only person in British politics that predicted what would happen and of course everyone said I was a pariah for daring to suggest it.
"George Robertson, former Labour cabinet minister who went on to become the Secretary General of NATO, has in the last couple of weeks said the war is a direct result of the EU expansion.
"My judgement has been way ahead of everybody else's in understanding this."
