Graham Phillips (journalist)

In July 2022, the government of the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on him. He was accused by British MP Robert Jenrick of committing a war crime after interviewing a captured British born Ukrainian soldier Aiden Aslin. Phillips has defended the interview, stating that he has 'nothing to hide' and that Aslin himself 'requested the interview'.

Phillips was at home in London at the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. He initially headed for Belarus, doing some videos from there, before crossing over into Ukraine, despite his lifetime ban. Phillips returned to report from Ukraine in March 2022, calling support for Ukraine "virtue signalling" for a "fashionable cause" and likened it to the support for Black Lives Matter. In March, Phillips was reporting from the Chernihiv area of Ukraine.

In April, Phillips was back reporting in Donbas, either from Mariupol, or on the theme of Mariupol. On 18 April 2022, Phillips, in Donetsk, interviewed Aiden Aslin, a British-Ukrainian soldier who had been captured by the Russian Armed Forces while serving in Ukrainian military and fighting in Mariupol. Phillips uploaded video of the interview to his YouTube channel, in which Aslin could be seen in handcuffs. British barrister Geoffrey Robertson said the interview could be a violation of international law, saying "coercive interrogation of prisoners of war for propaganda purposes is contrary to the Geneva Conventions". Phillips may face a war crime prosecution as a result of the interview. Former British Cabinet minister Damian Green described him as the modern-day equivalent of World War II Nazi propagandist Lord Haw-Haw.

In July 2022, government of the United Kingdom placed sanctions on Phillips and froze his assets. Phillips became the only British-born citizen to date to be sanctioned by his own country. Phillips responded "I didn't have any opportunity to defend myself, no-one notified me, there are no real charges against me.”

In 2021, Phillips released a new documentary about the MS Estonia, based around his interview with survivor Paul Barney.

In November of 2020, Phillips was awarded the «Военкор» 'War Correspondent' medal in Moscow. Others to receive this award included Alexander Sladkov, and Alexander Kots .

In 2019, Phillips started recording and publishing videos in Kosovo, in which he called the country a terrorist state, the Kosovo Liberation Army a "terrorist organization", and Ramush Haradinaj, Hashim Thaçi and other Kosovar leaders "war criminals and terrorists", sparking outrage in Kosovo. Phillips received death threats for his comments and was denied entry into Kosovo for life. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Phillips reported from Russia, and also the UK, where he covered Black Lives Matter events in London, describing himself as an opponent to the movement.

In early 2018, Phillips released a film, A Brit in Crimea, in which he took Scottish businessman Les Scott on holiday to the Russian-annexed Crimea. In August 2018, Phillips gatecrashed an exhibition at the Embassy of Georgia in London by Gia Bugadze dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the Russo-Georgian War, and was arrested by police for disrupting the event, shouting that the exhibition was "propaganda" and that its attendants were "NATO zombies". His actions were condemned by the Embassy of Ukraine in London who called on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to investigate Phillips' "terrorist activity".

In early October 2018, Phillips disrupted a press conference with Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins, accusing him of being a 'NATO agent', and insulting him. Also in October, Phillips released a documentary on his YouTube channel, accusing the Ukrainian nationalist politician Stepan Bandera of being a Nazi. He then travelled to his grave, in Munich, and tore down Ukrainian flags which had recently been placed there and placed a placard on the grave reading "Ukrainian Nazi Stepan Bandera is buried here", prompting an investigation by the Munich Police Department. Also in October of 2018, in Vienna, Phillips was accused by the then Ukrainian ambassador to Austria Olexander Scherba of coming to his premises, calling him a 'fascist', and attempting to provoke him into a fight.

In January of 2017, Phillips was thrown out of the UK Parliament at a 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the UK and Ukraine, for disruption. He had loudly asked why the United Kingdom was 'supporting Ukrainian shelling of civilian areas of Donbass'. Later in 2017, Phillips was accused by a Ukrainian prosecutor's office of taking an active role in the information and propaganda activities of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. Phillips was alleged to have collaborated, and been friends, with separatist leaders Mikhail Tolstykh and Arsen Pavlov. Phillips was known to be friends with Dr. Elizaveta Glinka, and released a film about her in 2017, following her death in December 2016.

Phillips continued reporting from Donbas throughout 2015, and 2016, often with controversial results. In a 17 September 2016 video published by Phillips, he is seen shortly before a prisoner exchange taunting a disabled Ukrainian prisoner of war who had lost both of his arms and sight in a mine blast, sparking outrage in Ukraine. The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group called for journalist NGOs to condemn Phillips' actions. Judith Gough, British Ambassador to Ukraine, said that she was appalled by the incident.

From 2016 on, Phillips would continue reporting from Donbas, but also began to travel more widely. On 16 March 2016, he was detained in Riga, Latvia for disrupting the Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires events and resisting police orders, after which he was deported to Russia and blacklisted for three years. Afterwards, Phillips covered the European Union membership referendum in the UK, openly declaring himself a supporter of Brexit.

On 2 August 2016, together with German journalist and activist Billy Six, he entered the Berlin office of the investigative journalism organisation Correctiv without permission and demanded an interview with Marcus Bensmann, who was investigating Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The duo repeatedly accused the organisation of lying, shouting "Lying press!" and filming the incident, and refused to leave until police called by Correctiv arrived.

Phillips has frequently been described as "pro-Russia" and "pro-Kremlin", and been accused of using his work to spread pro-Russian propaganda and conspiracy theories. Phillips himself maintains his reporting is independent. In 2015, Phillips was awarded a medal for his work by an organisation linked to the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the Soviet KGB.

In early 2015, Phillips was added to the controversial Ukrainian Myrotvorets site. In the UK, in April of 2015, Phillips attempted to storm into the Museum of Stepan Bandera in London, shouting that it was a 'Nazi collaborator museum', and was escorted from the premises by the police.

On 1 March 2015, Phillips was reportedly awarded the Medal "Border Brotherhood" by the Border Service, a branch of FSB, Russia's primary security service. Phillips has further been awarded several medals by the separatist republics of Donbas for his journalistic work, including the Medal "For Merit", 2nd class by the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic Igor Plotnitsky.

At this time, Phillips was also doing street interviews across Ukraine, for his YouTube channel. In May 2014, Phillips was captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine while reporting from Mariupol. After a day in detention, he was released on the condition that he would immediately leave Ukraine. RT expressed outrage over Phillips' detainment.

After covering the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil as a journalist and soccer fan, Phillips returned to report from Donbas in the summer of 2014, an apparent violation of the terms of his May release. Phillips was swiftly captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine again at Donetsk International Airport, before being held for three days, and then deported into Poland, banned from Ukraine for three years. Phillips stated that he was maltreated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine during his detention at the airport, while Ukraine accused Phillips of "supporting terrorism" as a "Kremlin propagandist".

Despite his ban, Phillips returned again to Ukraine in August 2014. In November 2014, Phillips was wounded by a shrapnel in the back while reporting from the frontlines of the war in Donbas.

Phillips has repeatedly reported from Crimea since the Russian annexation in 2014.

Graham William Phillips is a British YouTuber, freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker, who formerly worked as a stringer for the Russian state-owned television networks RT (2013–2014) and Zvezda (2014–2015). From March 2022, Phillips has covered the Russian invasion of Ukraine from the Russian side, initially from the Chernihiv area of Ukraine, then from Mariupol, then from Donetsk, and onto the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic on his YouTube channel.

In 2012, Phillips worked in Kyiv as a journalist for What's On magazine. After leaving What's On, Phillips worked as a freelance journalist from Ukraine, publishing several articles, including two for the New Statesman and three for the Kyiv Post among others. Phillips's work as a freelance journalist in Ukraine often focused on crime, as he covered the murder of Oksana Makar, a Ukrainian woman raped and burned alive, and Barry Pring, a British man killed outside Kyiv.

In November 2012, Phillips wrote an article for Pravda about the gloomy atmosphere in Ukraine after the highs of Euro 2012, and worries for the future. In early 2013, Phillips self-published a book, Ukraine – Men, Women, Sex, Murder, which culminated with his investigation into the death of Barry Pring. The book was removed from sale after legal action by Anna Ziuzina, the woman he accused of Pring's murder.

For his blog in 2012 and 2013, Phillips wrote a series of articles critical of Ukrainian nationalist politician Stepan Bandera and the Ukrainian nationalist party Svoboda, referring to Bandera as a "Nazi", and Svoboda as "neo-Nazis". Phillips was opposed to Euromaidan from the start, in November 2013, and began doing interviews with Russian state channel RT at this time, before going to work for them part-time as a reporter in Donbas in April 2014, covering the Russo-Ukrainian War, after multiple RT crews were denied entry into Ukraine.

Phillips first visited Ukraine in 2009 when he travelled to Dnipropetrovsk for an England football match. He moved to Ukraine in 2010, at the age of 30, and began working as an English teacher. Phillips started a blog, Brit in Ukraine, with articles on politics, history, life in Ukraine, UEFA Euro 2012 and sex tourism, including entries about prostitutes, call girls, foreign-bride hunters and sex tourists. The blog was renamed to Graham W Phillips and later deleted.

Phillips graduated from the University of Dundee with a dual degree in philosophy and history in the early 2000s. He then moved to London where he worked a number of years for the now-defunct Central Office of Information, as a clerk, reviewing government websites and preparing reports for the Parliament of the United Kingdom.