Graham Phillips (journalist)
Graham William Phillips is a British YouTuber, freelance journalist, and documentary film maker, who formerly worked as a stringer for the Russian state-owned television networks Russia Today (2013–2014) and Zvezda (2014–2015). From March 2022 Phillips has covered the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine from the Russian side, initially from the Chernihiv area of Ukraine, and then from Mariupol on his YouTube channel. Phillips has been described as "pro-Russia", and "pro-Kremlin", though he maintains his reporting is independent. Biography. Phillips graduated from the University of Dundee with a dual degree in philosophy and history in  the early 2000s, then moved to London. For the bulk of his career in London, he worked for the now-defunct Central Office of Information, as a clerk, reviewing government websites and preparing reports for the parliament. In Ukraine (2010–2014). Phillips first discovered Ukraine in 2009 when he travelled to Dnipropetrovsk for an England soccer game. He moved to Ukraine in 2010, at the age of 30, and began working as an English teacher. Philips also started a blog 'Brit in Ukraine,' with articles on politics, history, life in Ukraine, Euro 2012, and sex tourism, including entries about prostitutes, call  girls, foreign-bride hunters, and sex tourists. The blog was then renamed to 'Graham W Phillips', and later deleted. In 2012, Phillips worked in Kyiv as a nightlife writer for "What's On" magazine. After leaving What's On, Phillips worked as a freelance journalist from Ukraine, publishing several articles for the New Statesman, and the Kyiv Post among others. Phillips's work as a freelance journalist in Ukraine often focused on crime, as he covered the case of Oksana Makar, a Ukrainian girl raped and killed, and Barry Pring, a British man killed outside Kiev. In November of 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 Mr Pring's murder. In 2012, and 2013 on his blog, 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 of 2013, and began doing interviews with Russian state channel Russia Today at this time, before going to work for them part-time as a reporter in Donbass in April of 2014, covering the Russo-Ukrainian War, after multiple Russia Today crews were denied entry into Ukraine. At this time, Phillips was also doing street interviews across Ukraine, for his YouTube channel. In May of 2014, Phillips was captured by Ukrainian Armed Forces while reporting from Mariupol. After a day in detention, he was released , on the condition that he would immediately leave Ukraine. Russia Today expressed outrage over Philips' detainment. After covering the 2014 World Cup in Brazi 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 Ukrainian Armed Forces again at Donetsk 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 Ukrainian Armed Forces during his detention at Donetsk Airport, while Ukraine  accused Phillips of "supporting terrorism" as a "Kremlin propagandist". Despite his ban, Phillips returned again to Ukraine in August of 2014. In November of 2014, Phillips was wounded by a shrapnel in the back while reporting from the frontlines of the Donbas War. Across Europe, and Russia (2016–2021). On 16 March 2016, he was detained in Riga, Latvia for disrupting the Remembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires events, after which he was deported to Russia and blacklisted for three years. Afterwards, Phillips covered the Brexit 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. In a 17 September 2016 video published by Phillips, he is seen taunting a disabled Ukrainian prisoner of war shortly before a prisoner exchange who had lost both of his arms and sight in a mine blast, sparking outrage in  Ukraine. 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. 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 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 Doctor Liza, and released a film about her in 2017, following her death in December  of 2016. In early 2018, Phillips released a film, "A Brit in Crimea", where 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 Philips' "terrorist activity". In  October 2018, 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 vandalised it by tearing down the Ukrainian flags and attaching a banner reading "Ukrainian Nazi Stepan Bandera is buried here", prompting an investigation by the Munich Police Department. In 2019, Phillips started recording and publishing videos in Kosovo, in which he called the country a terrorist state, Kosovo Liberation Army a "terrorist organization" and Ramush Haradinaj, Hashim Thaçi, and other Kosovar leaders "war criminals and terrorists", sparking outrage in Kosova . Phillips received death threats for his comments and was denied further 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 opponent to the movement. Phillips has repeatedly reported from Crimea since the Russian annexation in 2014. Phillips has frequently described himself as a fan of Rover cars, and make several videos, and documentaries on the theme, including from the Longbridge site. In 2021, Phillips released a new documentary about the MS Estonia, based around his interview with survivor Paul Barney . Return to Ukraine (2022). Despite receiving a lifetime ban in 2014, Phillips returned to Ukraine in 2022 to report about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He has called 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, and on 18 April 2022, Phillips 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". According to "Yahoo! News", Phillips may face a war crime prosecution as a result of the interview. Former British Cabinet minister Damien Green described him as the modern-day equivalent of Second World War Nazi propagandist Lord Haw Haw. On 20 April, Phillips was criticised by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Nottinghamshire Member of  Parliament Robert Jenrick in the House of Commons. Johnson accused Phillips of producing propaganda messages and Jenrick said "the interviewer Graham Phillips is in danger of prosecution for war crimes". On 23 April, YouTube announced that it had removed Phillips' interview of Aslin citing privacy violations. In addition, the company announced that it had restricted Phillips ability to monetise content via his channel. For his part, Phillips has stated that he has "nothing to hide," adding that Aslin had "requested the interview". "Let anyone serious present any real charges against me, and I'll fully answer all of them - I 'm an independent journalist of complete integrity, and absolutely sound of conscience and ethics," he said. Awards. In 2015, he was reportedly awarded a medal 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 a II degree Medal of Merit by the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic Igor Plotnitsky.