LONDON — Nigel Farage said it is “probably essential” that Ukraine joins NATO, seemingly putting the key British Donald Trump ally at odds with the U.S. president’s administration as peace talks get underway.
The comments come despite Farage previously arguing that NATO and the European Union provoked Vladimir Putin into his invasion of Ukraine.
As his boss announced direct talks with Putin Wednesday, Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ruled out Ukrainian membership of NATO and said Europe “must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to Ukraine.” He also said there would be no U.S. troops involved in any peacekeeping operation.
But Farage — whose right-wing populist party is challenging Britain’s Labour government in the polls — suggested Kyiv moving closer to the West should form part of a long-term solution.
Farage told a London press conference Wednesday he didn’t want to “pre-judge how these negotiations go” but said “if we can get Putin into a place, and [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy into a place where we have a reasonable negotiation, I would have thought looking ahead, it’s probably essential that Ukraine joins NATO.”
Farage doubled down on that point on GB News, where he hosts a show, later that evening, stressing: “Ukraine now joining NATO is almost an essential part of this peace deal.”
During last year’s general election campaign, Farage criticized NATO’s eastward expansion, arguing that this allowed Putin to justify his invasion.
“We have provoked this war,” Farage said at the time, but he added. “Of course, it’s his [Putin’s] fault. He’s used what we’ve done.”
The comments come as Britain’s Labour government tries to take on Farage more directly, including painting him as more sympathetic to Putin.
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