The Lead Untangles: The Reform leader’s Russian influence scandal

Not unreported, but certainly not given much spotlight, what do the Russian bribes taken by a former Reform UK leader tell us?

Oct 03, 2025

The Lead Untangles is delivered via email each Friday by The Lead and focuses on a different complex, divisive issue with each edition. The entirety of The Lead Untangles will always be free for all subscribers.

Nathan Gill, a former leader of UKIP and Reform UK in Wales, as well as an MEP for Reform’s predecessors UKIP and the Brexit Party, has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in return for making statements in favour of Russia and pro-Russian media in the European parliament.

So what happened?

Gill, who is a practicing Mormon from Anglesey in North Wales, has admitted to eight counts of accepting bribes between December 2018 and July 2019.

The bribes were offered by Oleh Voloshyn, a pro-Russian agitator who worked as a political pundit for the 112 TV station and had earlier been linked to the pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich, who was ousted in the Maidan democratic uprising on 2014.

Voloshyn is also closely associated with Viktor Medvedchuk, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, who is the godfather of Medvedchuk’s daughter.

A series of WhatsApp messages uncovered in the Metropolitan Police’s investigation showed that Gill had agreed to take money from Voloshyn, who is charged with treason in Ukraine, in exchange for making statements.

So what did he say?

The European parliament record shows at least two pro-112 statements made by Gill. In October 2018, in a debate on EU-Ukraine association, he said that “the current government, before an election, is putting undue pressure on independent TV channels like News One and Channel 112. If you do not have a free press, you cannot have a free and fair election”... “Support for freedom and democracy should be universal, whether back home in the UK, here in the EU or in Ukraine, or anywhere else in the world. The Government of Ukraine must ensure that these principles are sacrosanct, and that means allowing TV stations to broadcast whether you like the message or not.”

Then in March 2019, he hijacked a debate on human rights in Kazakhstan to protest “much more pressing human rights issue right on our doorstep”, saying that “the current government, before an election, is putting undue pressure on independent TV channels like News One and Channel 112.”

Sounds like a great campaigner for free expression?

Well, ish. According to the Brussels Times, “In Brussels, Gill organised an event in July 2019 in the European Parliament inviting MEPs for a discussion with Medvedchuk where he presented his “peace plan for Donbas”, which at the time was partly-occupied following Russia’s 2014 invasion.

“One day after the event, Medvedchuk met with Russian President Putin at the Kremlin. He boasted about having presented his plan to “the newly-elected European deputies from Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria and Slovakia.”

Gill also made several Twitter posts suggesting opposition to EU support for Russia after Putin’s illegal annexation of Crimea and Donbas in 2014.

So, what are Reform saying?

Reform chair Zia Yusuf appeared on the BBC claiming that he had never met Gill and that Nigel Farage didn’t know who he was. This seems a stretch considering they were colleagues in UKIP, the Brexit Party, and Reform, and would have shared benches in the European Parliament. Oh, and the fact there are photographs of Farage with his arm around Gill.

Nigel Farage himself of course is no stranger to pro-Russian media, having been a frequent contributor to Russia Today, the Kremlin mouthpiece that was banned from UK airwaves after the full-scale invasion in 2022.

What’s everyone else saying?

Eluned Morgan, Labour’s First Minister of Wales, told the Senned this week: “I think we have all be appalled by the acts of the former leader of Reform in Wales and a person who was a member of this Chamber – one of seven members elected to the party led by Nigel Farage.

“I think it is important that people recognise that the Brexit Party, again previously led by Nigel Farage, voted against measures to counter Russian misinformation.”

The Conservatives in Wales have been no less damning, saying: “The former member of the Welsh Parliament, Nathan Gill, admitted to taking bribes to make pro Russian statements in the European Parliament.

“The current Reform leader in Wales – who of course doesn’t live in Wales – Nigel Farage has also disgustingly cosied up to the Russians in the past.

“He has spoken openly of his admiration for Vladimir Putin and even pushed the Russian propaganda lie that the west provoked the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

What happens now?

In brief, a major figure in the Brexit movement will now go to jail for accepting bribes for acting as an agent of influence for Russian interests.

His associate Volshyn, meanwhile, has been under sanctions from the UK, US and Canadian governments since 2022, and in 2023 was formally charged with treason by the Ukrainian government, accused of “promoting the military-political leadership of the Russian Federation in subversive activities against Ukraine”.

Gill may have saved Reform the embarrassment of disclosures during a trial by pleading guilty, but given Keir Starmer’s loud and proud declaration of continued British support for Ukraine during his leader’s speech on Tuesday, plus Labour’s apparent renewed vigour in taking the fight to Nigel Farage and Reform, we can’t imagine this issue being put to bed any time soon.■

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?