The leader of the British populist party Reform UK, Nigel Farage, described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "very bad person" and said that he was not rational after significantly hardening his tone against Russia, "Politico" quoted him as saying.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Farage expressed disappointment that Putin had not ended the war in Ukraine. "Obviously Putin is a very bad person. I really hoped that Trump would make Putin obey and some compromise could be reached, as was recently achieved between Gaza and Israel. "Obviously that's not going to happen," Farage said.
The Reform UK leader has been criticised by his political rivals for his past comments on Russia. Last year, Farage said the West had "provoked" Putin's invasion of Ukraine by expanding NATO eastwards.
Farage rejected accusations that he was weak on foreign policy. "It's clear that Putin is not a rational man," he said. "The idea that I'm soft on this is just nonsense."
He called on NATO countries to "drop" Russian planes violating allied airspace, and supported the use of frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine.
However, Farage refrained from specific support for sending British troops to monitor a ceasefire, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been proposing through the concept of a "coalition of the willing" for peace. He said he might send a UN force and consider a Korean approach if he were in power.
Starmer's Labour Party has sought to portray Farage as soft on Russia, with the Prime Minister accusing him of "kowtowing to Putin" earlier this year.