Quote Originally Posted by JamesWales View Post
Provoked is absolutely the wrong word and only one person is to blame - Putin. There is essentially zero moral justification for his war. The only remotely just part of his argument (that ethnic Russians were being abused in eastern Ukraine) is very flimsy and not justification for what he's done. So, it is all on Putin.

But. In the land of Realpolitik, there are still reasons for things happening. Just like Germany starting WW2 is entirely unjustified, it doesn't mean we ignore the treaty of Versailles which many Germans cite as a reason for grievance. Likewise, many on here have correctly argued that the Israel/Palestine situation did not start on October 7th.

So Farages wording was wrong, but in explaining what happened and why he is essentially right. Putin is a maniacal paranoid tyrant but he likely did feel threatened.
Agreed he shouldn't have said it in that way, but everyone knows why it escalated, he said in advance what would happen.