The Russian invasion of Ukraine may not have occurred without Brexit, top Eurocrat Guy Verhofstadt claimed on the third anniversary of the UK’s official departure from the European Union.
The EU Parliament’s former Brexit Coordinator and former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt suggested on Tuesday that Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February was the fault of the British voters reclaiming their country’s sovereignty from the bloc.
“A united Europe, certainly on defence matters, would make an enormous difference. I think maybe without Brexit, maybe there was no invasion. I don’t know,” the Member of European Parliament told LBC Radio on the third anniversary of the UK’s formal withdrawal from the EU.
“Let’s hope that Britain can re-join, and let’s hope Ukraine can join. Why not within five years? Maybe it’s a little bit optimistic with the UK,” he said.
The blaming of Brexit for the Ukraine war by Mr Verhofstadt, while not surprising given his longstanding opposition to the independence movement, is curious given the leading role the UK has taken on the Ukraine issue.
The British government has led the world in terms of military and financial aid sent from London as well as the vocal support expressed by both Boris Johnson and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, both of whom have personally visited the Ukrainian capital to pledge their support for the Zelensky administration.
Meanwhile, the anti-Brexit former leader of the Liberal alliance in the EU Parliament, said that he did not believe that NATO or EU expansionism were contributing factors to the Russian invasion, despite Russia, for their part, very clearly telegraphing their feelings on that matter in the past.
“This war, this brutal invasion has started with Putin and with Russia. It has nothing to do with the extension of NATO, it has nothing to do with, in my opinion, even the European Union. It’s really an attempt by Putin to restore the old Soviet Union, the only difference is that the communist party is replaced by his cronies,” he said.
Last week, the globalist Eurocrat took aim at the other side of the 2016 populist uprising coin, former President Donald Trump, whom he claimed was a bigger threat to peace than Vladimir Putin or Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.
Commenting in response to Mr Trump stating that he would seek to broker a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv (Kiev) on day one if re-elected to the White House in 2024, Verhofstadt said: “A re-elected Trump promises to bow to Putin within 24 hours.”
Despite President Trump being the only American leader of the 21st Century to not see Russia invade one of its neighbours under his watch and indeed being the first president since the 1970s to not launch a new war, Verhofstadt added: “He is as much an enemy of freedom as Putin and Xi… but fighting to destroy democracy from within!”
Last week, Verhofstadt’s longtime nemesis, Brexit leader Nigel Farage said that the “thoroughly believes” that if Mr Trump had been in the White House “Putin would not have invaded Ukraine.”
The Brexiteer said that it was the weak leadership from President Biden, namely the disastrous unilateral withdrawal from Afghanistan, that emboldened Vladimir Putin to launch the invasion in February of last year, just six months after the botched exit of the American military from Afghanistan.
Mr Farage said that he couldn’t promise that “if Trump gets back it will all be over the next day,” but he said that it might not be a bad thing for Putin to once again “fear the American president”.
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka
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