Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has hit back at critics over his comments about Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
In an interview with BBC Panorama, Farage had claimed that the EU and Nato had given Putin a reason to tell the Russian people "they're coming for us again".
Addressing the comments at a Reform UK conference in Kent, Farage blasted the claims that he was "defending" Putin, telling the crowd he "would never, ever defend Putin".
Farage raged: "I think his behaviour in Ukraine and elsewhere has been reprehensible".
Nigel Farage has hit back at criticism of his comments about Russian leader Vladimir Putin
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Hitting out at the world leaders, Farage claimed that they have "no knowledge of history" and "our leaders had no knowledge of Russia's psychology".
He fumed: "None of this justifies what he's done. And who knows - he may have done it anyway. But we gave him to give his people a reason for doing so.
"And you think I'm on my own in thinking this? The Pope in 2022 - it's not often the Pope and I are on the same side of any debate particularly - I'm a bit more Henry VIII. But the Pope made this point in 2022."
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Fuming at the mainstream media, Farage hit out at the Daily Mail for portraying him as "the bad guy" following his Panorama interview.
He told Reform UK supporters: "I'm all over the front page of the Daily Mail for daring to stand by what I said all those years ago.
"And overnight, their most famous columnist, a man called Boris Johnson, has said that I am morally repugnant, for suggesting this might have been a causal factor in this appalling war, that has now got perhaps nearly a million dead and wounded, and shows no sign of changing."
In a further attack on the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Farage then unveiled a large cardboard image of Johnson's article from 2016, where he had claimed that the "EU were responsible for the war in Ukraine".
Nigel Farage claimed he would 'never, ever, defend Putin'
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The reveal of the image was met with applause and laughter from the crowd, as Farage stated: "Perhaps it's Boris Johnson that's morally repugnant and not me? I don't know!
"Can you see the sheer level of hypocrisy? Can you see the nonsense of all this? And let's be clear, this man will go down as the worst Prime Minister of modern times.
"A man who betrayed an 80 seat majority. Who opened the door to mass immigration? Boris Johnson. Who betrayed the will of Brexit voters? It was Boris Johnson."
