Nigel Farage Says Zelensky Is "Not A Dictator"
Nigel Farage said Donald Trump's comments should not always be taken "literally" (Alamy)
2 min read
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has joined other party leaders in saying that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is "not a dictator", in response to comments made by US President Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, Trump posted on social media that he blamed Zelensky for continuing the war with Russia, and called him a "Dictator without Election". In turn, Zelensky accused Trump of living in a "disinformation space" created by the Kremlin.
Farage has become the latest UK party leader to contradict Trump's accusation. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave statements on Wednesday saying that the Ukrainian president had been democratically elected.
In an interview with GB News, Farage said: "Let's be clear, Zelensky is not a dictator, but it's only right and proper that Ukrainians have a timeline for elections."
The Reform leader insisted that not everything Trump says should be taken "literally".
"There's a lot of bad blood between President Trump and previous Ukrainian leaders," Farage said.
"The impeachment that happened was all because of a relationship between the Ukrainian government and the Biden family."
However, Farage went on to say that while Zelensky is "not a dictator", there needed to be a timeline set out for a general election in which the Ukrainian people could vote on whether a peace deal goes ahead.
"I'm not suggesting Ukraine has an election tomorrow, but once we see the shape of the peace deal, then of course there should be an election."
Starmer last night told the Ukrainian leader it was "perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during war time as the UK did during World War II".
Farage told GB News that he had taken longer to respond to Trump's remarks than other party leaders because he had been on a flight to the US overnight.
Deputy leader of Reform Richard Tice added on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, that "of course the war was started by Putin" and that Trump was "elected on mandate to try to seek peace and he is trying to deliver on that".
"Everything must be on the table, including critically the security guarantees," he said.
"But it must be right to try for peace. European nations must also step up on defence spending as the US is tired of overpaying to defend us."
Lib Dem leader Davey accused Farage of choosing to "explain away Trump’s outrageous remarks" rather than condemning them, which he described as "deeply disappointing but not at all surprising".
“He sounds like a spokesman for Trump," Davey said. "He certainly doesn’t speak for Britain.”
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