Nigel Farage has revealed he would shoot down Russian drones if he were elected Prime Minister in what marks the Reform UK leader's strongest remarks on Russia.
The comments come after he came under cross-party fire, accusing him of being soft on Russian President Vladimir Putin who he admitted was a "very bad dude".
"I was really hoping that Trump would bring Putin to heel," Mr Farage told Bloomberg.
"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."
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The Reform leader also said Britain would use frozen Russian assets to help aid Ukraine, saying "if they're there through illegal means, they should be".
When asked what he would do about Russian jets travelling into Nato territory, Mr Farage said: "Gotta shoot them down".
However, Mr Farage fell short of committing to putting British troops on the ground in Ukraine if there was a ceasefire, adding: "I'd be very cautious about doing that" and instead he could throw his support behind a putting a "UN force", comparing the approach to Korea.
The Reform leader said he expects "the Americans beginning to deliver Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv".
Reform leader Nigel Farage admitted he would shoot down Russian drones if he was elected Prime Minister
| PA"I think Trump feels that Putin has made a fool of him," Mr Farage said.
"Clearly, Putin is not a rational man."
The comments appear to be a shift in Mr Farage's stance on the Russian President.
Last month, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson described Mr Farage's view on Russia as "extremely dangerous".
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Vladimir Putin has been slammed by Nigel Farage
| REUTERSIt was a similar tactic he used against former rival Jeremy Corbyn during the 2019 General Election campaign.
Mr Farage, in 2014, said he admired Putin "as an operator".
"But not as a human being," he said.
Recent polls have the Reform leader on track to become Britain's Prime Minister at the next General Election.
A bombshell mega-poll has projected he would earn the largest House of Commons majority in modern political history.
That would be the case if the General Election was held this week.
Reform UK is on course to win 445 seats while Labour would go down to 73 and the Tories would retain just seven.
However, tactical voting could block the Reform leader's path to victory as more than a third of Labour voters have said they would back the Tories to stop Mr Farage's party.
Despite this, Mr Farage said “Reform UK has hit 36 per cent in the polls for the very first time".
“Our extraordinary journey continues with pace and shows no signs of stopping," he added.
The seat-by-seat MRP poll was carried out by communications firm PLMR and Electoral Calculus.
MRP - multilevel regression and post-stratification - is considered a more accurate way to predict how many seats each party will win during a General Election.
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