War in Ukraine ‘needs concessions on both sides’, says Nigel Farage
The war in Ukraine needs “concessions on both sides” if it is to come to an end, Nigel Farage has said.
The Reform UK leader suggested the invaded nation could gain “quite a lot from settling”, though he refused to say if this meant giving up territory to Russia in return.
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Mr Farage was speaking to Sky News after travelling back from America following his ally Donald Trump’s election victory.
Asked about the president-elect’s claims he could end the war in Ukraine “on day one”, Mr Farage said: “Well, the war is horrendous. There are nearly a million battle casualties. It’s like the battle of the Somme with drones.
“We have two options. We can keep feeding Ukraine, and that’s fine. And the war goes on for another year, two years, five years. The casualties mount. What Trump has said is he wants to attempt to broker a peace deal.”
The Clacton MP said that would require “concessions on both sides”, adding: ” I think Ukraine could actually gain quite a lot.”
He would not be drawn on whether that could mean Ukraine giving up territory, but said that “any negotiation is going to involve things that the other side don’t like”.
He added: “I think that the appeal to Ukraine would be part of that negotiation would be that Ukraine would become a full part of NATO. Now, Putin would hate that… but that would have to be part of the deal.
“If there were territorial concessions, that’s all for the negotiations.”
Pressed on if he thinks Ukraine should be open to territorial concessions, he said: “I’m not playing your silly game. I think there should be peace talks.”
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He added that while former prime minister Boris Johnson, a staunch backer of Ukraine, wants “the war to go on forever… all wars end either in negotiation, with concessions or annihilation”.
Armed conflict in eastern Ukraine erupted in early 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and escalated in February 2022 when Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion.
Mr Farage previously drew criticism for his views on the conflict during the UK’s general election campaign, when he said the West “provoked” Russia into the invasion with NATO’s and the EU’s expansion.
He ultimately won the seat for Clacton in Essex, but has since faced criticism for not spending enough time in his constituency.
Asked about this during his interview, Mr Farage said: “I’ve just exchanged contracts on the house that I’ll be living there in, is that good enough?”
He also questioned how much time Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer spends in his constituency, or Lib Dem leader Ed Davey, saying things were different for party leaders than backbench MPs.
“I am representing Clacton, yes, but I’m also leading a national political party which is rapidly rising in the polls, which we have to build from the ground up,” he said.
“Today is Friday. Very often MPs are in constituencies on Friday. I’m in Wales, we’re having an inaugural Reform UK conference here. We’re looking to the Senedd elections.
“Tomorrow, I’ll be in Exeter. If you’re a national party leader, it’s different.”
After the interview, a source close to Mr Farage said: “Nigel has been to Clacton more than 10 times since being elected. He has kept his promise to have a property in the constituency, writes a weekly column for the Clacton Gazette (10 weeks in a row) and is having two further visits next week.”
Global trade tensions triggered by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff measures may come to an end with a potential deal with China as investors remain concerned about escalation from both sides.
Trump’s April 2 announcement of reciprocal import tariffs sent shockwaves through global equity and crypto markets. The measures include a 10% baseline tariff on all imported goods, effective April 5, with higher levies — such as a 34% tariff on Chinese imports — set to begin on April 9.
However, the tariff negotiations may only be “posturing” for the US to reach an agreement with China, according to Raoul Pal, founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor.
“In the end, almost all the other tariff negotiations and rhetoric are all about getting China to agree a deal,” Pal wrote in an April 8 X post, adding:
“That is the big prize and both China and the US understand it and need it. Everything else is negotiation posturing. China needs a weaker $ and the US needs tariffs.”
Source: Raoul Pal
“Also, the US is trying to shut down China tariff arbitrage using other channels such as Mexico or Vietnam,” Pal said.
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China retaliates with new tariffs
Considering China’s latest retaliatory measures, a resolution remains unlikely in the short term.
In response to US tariffs, China imposed a 34% tariff on all US imports effective April 10, media outlet Xinhua News reported on April 4. China’s foreign ministry also vowed to “fight till the end” against Trump’s tariffs, which it called “bullying” by the world’s largest economy.
China overtakes the US in global trade. Source: Econovis
China overtook the US in 2012 to become the world’s largest trading nation by the total value of exports and imports, surpassing $4 trillion in goods trade that year, according to The Guardian.
Crypto markets watch trade outcome closely
As the trade dispute continues to evolve, analysts say a potential agreement between the two global superpowers could serve as a key catalyst for recovery in digital asset markets.
Crypto markets have a 70% chance to bottom by June 2025 before recovering, Nansen analysts predicted.
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Investor appetite for risk assets such as Bitcoin will depend on the global tariff responses from other countries, according to Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen.
“We have reached somewhat of a local bottom in regard to tariffs and the impact on prices,” the analyst said during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction live show on X, adding:
“Trump came out guns blazing, and we’ve mostly seen the worst from the US side, so we’ll see if other countries are willing to drop some of the tariffs because it’s very likely the US will do the same.”
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A Nigerian court has reportedly delayed the country’s tax evasion case against Binance until April 30 to give time for Nigeria’s tax authority to respond to a request from the crypto exchange.
Reuters reported on April 7 that a lawyer for Binance, Chukwuka Ikwuazom, asked a court the same day to invalidate an order allowing for court documents to be served to the company via email.
Binance doesn’t have an office in Nigeria and Ikwuazom claimed the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) didn’t get court permission to serve court documents to Binance outside the country.
“On the whole the order for the substituted service as granted by the court on February 11, 2025 on Binance who is … registered under the laws of Cayman Islands and resident in Cayman Islands is improper and should be set aside,” he said.
FIRS sued Binance in February, claiming the exchange owed $2 billion in back taxes and should be made to pay $79.5 billion for damages to the local economy as its its operations allegedly destabilized the country’s currency, the naira, which Binance denies.
It also reportedly alleged that Binance is liable to pay corporate income tax in Nigeria, as it has a “significant economic presence” there, with FIRS requesting a court order for the exchange to pay income taxes for 2022 and 2023, plus a 10% annual penalty on unpaid amounts along with a nearly a 27% interest rate on the unpaid taxes.
Nigeria’s legal history with Binance
In February 2024, Nigeria arrested and detained Binance executives Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla on tax fraud and money laundering charges. The country dropped the tax charges against both in June and the remaining charge against Gambaryan in October.
Tigran Gambaryan (right) was seen in a September video struggling to walk into a courtroom in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. Source: X
Anjarwalla managed to slip his guards and escape Nigerian custody to Kenya in March last year and is apparently still at large.
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Gambaryan, a US citizen, returned home in October after reports suggested his health had deteriorated during his detainment with reported cases of pneumonia, malaria and a herniated spinal disc that may need surgery.
Binance stopped its naira currency deposits and withdrawals in March 2024, effectively leaving the Nigerian market.
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