Nick Clegg has attacked Nigel Farage for advocating the "perverse" view that the EU, rather than Vladimir Putin, is to blame for the recent bloodshed in the Ukrainian capital.

The deputy prime minister said he was "extraordinarily surprised" that the Ukip leader had allowed his "loathing of the EU" to prompt him to say in their televised LBC debate that the EU had blood on its hands in Ukraine.

Speaking on his weekly LBC phone-in on the morning after their debate, Clegg said: "It shows quite how extreme people can be – like Nigel Farage – when their loathing of the EU becomes so all-consuming that they even end up siding with Vladimir Putin in order to make their point.

"To suggest that somehow it is the EU's fault that the Ukrainian people rose up, as many did on the streets of Kiev, against their government seeking to claim greater democracy, greater freedom, is such a perverse way of looking at things."

Clegg acknowledged that he had not won the debate after a YouGov/Sun poll said that Farage had triumphed by 57% to 36%. The poll was published after the Lib Dem and Ukip leaders clashed for an hour over EU migration, criminal justice policy and trade.

The deputy prime minister said: "Clearly a lot of people didn't agree with me. But it doesn't entirely surprise me. This is a marathon, not a sprint. For years and years you have this misinformation, these deeply misleading facts put about by people like Nigel Farage unchallenged. Of course, I am not going to be able to reverse that in one hour. But I hugely enjoyed it."

But Clegg made clear that he would highlight the remarks by Farage on Ukraine when they hold a second televised debate on BBC2 next week. The Ukip leader caused some surprise towards the end of their LBC debate when he said the EU was to blame for the bloodshed in Kiev after giving false hope to Ukrainians of a future in the EU.

Farage told the debate: "We should hang our heads in shame. The British government has actually geed up the EU to pursue effectively an imperialist, expansionist – and even Mr Barroso, the commission president, once said we are building an empire.

"We have given a false series of hopes to a group of people in the western Ukraine. So geed up were they that they actually toppled their own elected leader. That provoked Mr Putin. I think the EU frankly does have blood on its hands in the Ukraine."

But on Thursday morning Clegg said: "I wasn't surprised that Nigel Farage doesn't agree with me. I was extraordinarily surprised, if not shocked, that he agrees with Vladimir Putin.

The deputy PM said Farage's views were "really insulting to those people in Kiev, who were simply standing up for values we should share and support of democracy, of autonomy, of them being able to determine their own fate.

"For Nigel Farage to side with Vladimir Putin – well he will have to explain why he did that – I was astounded he did so."

The deputy prime minister added: "I personally think that what Vladimir Putin has done, what the Russians have done – in effect annexing a part of another country in the heart of Europe – is simply unacceptable in this day and age. Of course the only reason we are able to seek to exert any influence – and it is difficult enough as it is – on Vladimir Putin is because we can act with the clout of being part of the superpower that is the EU, upon which of course Russia depends a lot.

"This, as on so many other issues, I see very, very differently to Nigel Farage. But it was in many ways the most striking, if not shocking, new revelation that came to light in yesterday's debate."