Farage hits back after Johnson accuses him of spreading 'Kremlin propaganda'

NIGEL Farage insisted yesterday that he would "never, ever" defend Vladimir Putin and his disastrous invasion of Ukraine.

- Michael Knowles

But the Reform UK leader poured fuel on the fire as his row with former prime minister Boris Johnson over Russia intensified.

Appearing on top of a campaign bus in Maidstone, Kent, he pointed to an enlarged newspaper front page from 2016 with the headline: "Boris blames EU for war in Ukraine", which referred to Putin's invasion of Crimea.

Mr Farage claimed his Tory rival will go down as "the worst prime minister of modern times".

And he then told the rally: "This has been turned into 'Farage makes outrageous statement', 'Farage defends Putin'. Well I've done none of those things.

"I would never, ever defend Putin. His behaviour in Ukraine and elsewhere has been reprehensible.

"But if we're going to think towards a peace, perhaps it might be helpful to understand what went wrong in the first place." Mr Farage once again stuck by his belief that the West had provoked the war in Ukraine.

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And he said he had warned about such an outcome back in 2014, adding: "I was alone. I was the only person in 2014 who said there will be a war in Ukraine.