Nigel Farage has called Vladimir Putin “a very bad dude” in an apparent bid to counter accusations that he cannot be trusted with Britain’s national security.
The Reform UK leader also backed shooting down Russian jets that enter Nato airspace and spending frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.
With the party riding high in the polls, rivals have sought to promote perceptions that it and its leader are weak on Moscow after Mr Farage previously said he admired the Russian president “as an operator, but not as a human being”.
But seeking to toughen his line on Thursday, he told Bloomberg’s The Mishal Husain Show: “Clearly, Putin is not a rational man.
“The idea that I’m soft on this is just nonsense.”
He also said: “Obviously, Putin is a very bad dude.
“I was really hoping that Trump would bring Putin to heel, that some kind of compromise could be struck, as it’s just been recently struck with Gaza and Israel. Clearly, that is not going to happen.”
Reform has come under pressure after Nathan Gill, the party’s former leader in Wales, pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for making pro-Russian statements while he was a member of the European Parliament.
“We had a bad apple in this bloke? Yes,” Mr Farage said, adding: “I believe, 100%, with all my heart, there’s nobody else.”
Asked what he would do if Russian jets crossed into allied airspace, Mr Farage said: “Gotta shoot them down.”
He said frozen Russian assets should be used to provide loans for Ukraine “if they’re there through illegal means”.
The Clacton MP said that, in the event of a ceasefire, he could support the presence of British troops in Ukraine as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force if he became prime minister.
But he repeated arguments that “the endless eastward expansion of Nato and the European Union” contributed to Mr Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.
Foreign policy expert Sophia Gaston said on X: “If you say you support Nato (encouraged by the resilience of British public support) and Ukraine but blame Nato expansionism (a response to Russian aggression) for ‘provoking’ Russia, then you don’t support Ukraine and you’re not credible on European security, full stop.”
It comes after Defence Secretary John Healey warned last month that Mr Farage could not be trusted with Britain’s national security, accusing him and his party of “looking up to” Mr Putin.
“I don’t think Nigel Farage or his party can be trusted with national security,” the Cabinet minister said.
