Graham William Phillips (born 26 January 1979) is a British blogger and journalist primarily known for his coverage of the Russo-Ukrainian war from Donbas, and reporting from occupied Crimea.
Phillips, who describes himself as an independent British journalist, was sanctioned by the government of the United Kingdom in 2022 for producing and publishing "propagandist video content which glorifies the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its atrocities, and promotes disinformation advanced by Russia as a justification for the invasion". Phillips was the first British-born UK citizen to be added to the UK sanctions list, and remains the only British-born national to be sanctioned by the UK. He is also sanctioned by the European Union and Ukraine due to his work from Donbas. Phillips states that he "shows the truth about Donbass" and has long accused the Ukrainian Government of being "Nazis" and of "indiscriminately shelling civilians".
Prior to 2012 Phillips was a civil servant in London, and a noted supporter of the England football team. From 2010–2013, living in Ukraine, he worked as a journalist at a magazine in Kyiv. From 2013, during Euromaidan in Ukraine, then the Donbas War in eastern Ukraine, Phillips initially worked as a stringer for Russian state-owned television networks RT (2013–2014) and Zvezda (2014–2015), before going on to report for his own YouTube channel, building his channel up to hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and over 112 million views, before YouTube deleted it in 2023. Russian and pro-Russian Donbas authorities have awarded him multiple medals for his work. Phillips was an active supporter of Brexit in the 2016 UK referendum. Writing on Phillips' work from the Donbas in 2017, the BBC described him as "often in the midst of tearing bullets and toppling buildings. His daredevil style has drawn the attention of audiences". Since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Phillips has made videos from the occupied territories, sometimes wearing Russian combat uniform and insignia, and driving a Range Rover displaying the Russian Z symbol on the Donbas frontlines.
In July 2022, several months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the government of the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Phillips, stating that his work "supports and promotes actions and policies which destabilise Ukraine and undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty, or independence of Ukraine". Sanctions also caused Phillips' YouTube channel to be terminated. In October 2024, Phillips was granted political asylum in Russia. In November 2025, it was announced that Phillips was under investigation by the Metropolitan Police for war crimes related to multiple alleged breaches of the Geneva Conventions, including Phillips' 2022 interview with British-Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW) Aiden Aslin. Phillips has denied the accusations, and continues his work from Russian-occupied Donbas, notably Mariupol, where he lives.
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Early life
Phillips' birthplace has been listed as either Nottingham, or Newcastle in England, or Dundee in Scotland. A 2025 BBC podcast described him as a 'Nottingham Lad'. He attended Perth High School, and graduated from the University of Dundee with a dual degree in philosophy and history in the early 2000s. During his student years, Phillips had started to do some freelance journalism, faxing articles into The Scotsman, and doing an internship with The Guardian. He also tried his hand at stand-up comedy at this time, performing alongside Miles Jupp, Frankie Boyle, and Russell Brand, sometimes using the pseudonym 'Brandon Reed', and performing more than once at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In 2000, Phillips backpacked around the US with his brothers, in particular visiting the steel mill location in Robocop, one of his favourite films. While at Dundee University, Phillips led a campaign to have Baywatch actor David Hasselhoff elected as rector in 2001; Hasselhoff said the rector nomination was "a great personal honour", but declined the post due to other commitments. Along with local artist Benni Esposito, Phillips ran a Hasselhoff-themed comedy show in Dundee, which later transferred to London's West End.
After graduating from university, Phillips moved to London where he worked a number of years as a civil servant for the now-defunct Central Office of Information reviewing government websites and preparing reports for the Parliament of the United Kingdom, later speaking of his frustration at the mundanity of this work.
Ukraine
Early years in Ukraine (2010–2013)
Phillips first visited Ukraine in 2009 when he travelled to Dnipropetrovsk to support the England football team. After going to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa as an England fan, Phillips then moved to Ukraine, looking for the chance to return to journalism, which he had last engaged in in his student years. He was 31, and initially began working in Kyiv as an English teacher, also starting a blog, Brit in Ukraine, with articles on politics, history, life in Ukraine, UEFA Euro 2012 and sex tourism, including entries about prostitutes, foreign-bride hunters, sex tourists, and reviews of brothels. The blog was renamed to 'Graham W Phillips', then the 'Truth Speaker', and eventually deleted.
In 2012, Phillips started work in Kyiv as a journalist for the English-language What's On magazine, his work there included interviews with Chris Rea and Sergei Baltacha. After leaving What's On, Phillips worked as a freelance journalist from Ukraine, publishing several articles, including two for the New Statesman, three for the Kyiv Post and three for Pravda, among others. In November 2012, Phillips' article for Pravda.ru opined about the gloomy atmosphere in Ukraine after the highs of Euro 2012, and worries for the future.
Phillips's work as a freelance journalist in Ukraine often focused on crime; he covered the murder of Oksana Makar, a Ukrainian woman raped and burned alive, and Barry Pring, a British man killed outside Kyiv. 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 highly critical of Ukrainian nationalist politician Stepan Bandera and the Ukrainian nationalist party Svoboda, referring to Bandera as a "Nazi", and Svoboda as "neo-Nazis". Journalist Paul Kenyon wrote of Phillips: "During the Maidan Revolution in February 2014, Phillips was reporting from a rally of the notoriously far-right Svoboda Party, when he observed dozens of people throwing Nazi salutes. It was an earth-shattering moment for the fresh-faced young journalist from Nottingham. When the Kremlin blamed “Nazis” for the overthrow of their puppet Viktor Yanukovych, Graham Phillips decided to take their side."
2014–2021
In March 2014, living in Odesa, Phillips drove to Crimea, as Russia took control of the peninsula. Phillips wrote an article for Politico magazine, writing that most of the people he had spoken to in Crimea supported Russia. Phillips then went to work part-time for RT as a reporter in Donbas in April 2014, covering the Russo-Ukrainian War, after multiple RT crews were denied entry into Ukraine. Phillips said at this time, that although he was working as a freelancer and stringer for RT, his priority was developing his own YouTube channel. Phillips often reported from Crimea in the years after the 2014 Russian annexation.
The Guardian wrote in May 2014 that Phillips had "gained notoriety during the conflict in the east for his gonzo-style subjective reports and his sharp online criticism of the Maidan protests and the new Ukrainian government." Much of the attention on Phillips was generated by his prolific use of his YouTube channel, with him often uploading 20-30 videos per day, something he combined with his work for RT. Phillips' wide-eyed style of reporting earned him a comparison to Timothy Treadwell in Grizzly Man. In the course of doing video reports from Donbas in Spring of 2014, Phillips was initially taken captive by both sides. In May 2014, Phillips was detained by the National Guard of Ukraine while reporting from Mariupol. According to RT, they demanded that Phillips delete the footage he had filmed and when Phillips refused, he was detained, held in captivity for a day, and then taken to Kyiv by car with a black bag on his head and a gun pointed at him, as he reported. In Kyiv he was told he must immediately leave Ukraine. At this time, Phillips was described as a 'sometime RT correspondent'.
After covering the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil as a journalist and England football fan, Phillips returned to report from Donbas in the summer of 2014, an apparent violation of the terms of his May release. Upon going to Donetsk International Airport to report, Phillips was quickly arrested by a group of 18 armed Ukrainian soldiers. Phillips was held in captivity for three days then deported into Poland and banned from Ukraine for three years. Phillips stated that he was maltreated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine during his detention at the airport, who had stolen his car, a Rover 75, while Ukraine accused Phillips of "supporting terrorism" as a "Kremlin propagandist". In breach of his ban, Phillips returned again to Ukraine in August 2014. In November 2014, Phillips was seriously wounded in the back by shrapnel while reporting from the frontlines of the war in Donbas. At this time, Phillips was working for Russian state channel Zvezda, as a freelancer, having parted company with RT following his second deportation from Ukraine, along with uploading videos to his YouTube channel.
Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022–)
At the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, Phillips was at home in London. He welcomed the invasion, saying it was needed to "denazify" Ukraine. By early March he was already crossing the border from Belarus into Russian-occupied Ukraine, in breach of his lifetime ban from Ukraine. In an interview at this time, Phillips dismissed support for Ukraine as "virtue signalling" for a "fashionable cause" and likened it to the support for Black Lives Matter. Phillips remained reporting from the Chernihiv Oblast of Ukraine in March, releasing several videos. At this time, Phillips was attracting condemnation from UK media for his work, and position. Russian media reported that Phillips left the Chernihiv area in early April, going to the city of Tyumen in Siberia, to collect his Jaguar, and then driving the several thousand kilometres to Donbas, collecting "humanitarian aid" for Mariupol en route. Phillips published a video at this time claiming that the Bucha massacre had been staged by Ukraine.
Shortly after returning to Donbas, in April 2022, Phillips would attract heavy criticism for his interview with Aiden Aslin. On 18 April 2022, Phillips, in Donetsk, interviewed Aslin, a British citizen who had been captured by the Russian Armed Forces whilst serving in the Ukrainian military and fighting in Mariupol. Phillips uploaded video of the interview to his YouTube channel, in which Aslin could be seen in handcuffs. Australian-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", and said that 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. On 20 April, Phillips was criticised by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and by 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, and demonetised his channel.
Phillips stated Aslin himself "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. After a prisoner exchange, Aslin has spoken about his interview with Phillips, in several interviews, and a book. In a November 2022 interview, Aslin denied he "requested" the interview with Phillips, and described both Phillips' questions and his answers as "scripted and rehearsed". In an April 2023 interview, he described the behaviour of Phillips as "normal when off camera" but going "psychotic" when cameras were turned on.
Awards
Phillips has been awarded multiple medals both by the Donbas republics and by Russia:
March 2015 – Russia - Medal "Border Brotherhood", Chekhov near Moscow, on behalf of the Border Service.
December 2015 – Medal "For Merit", 2nd Grade, Luhansk, awarded by then head of the Luhansk People's Republic, Igor Plotnitsky.
September 2016 – Medal by order of the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the LPR, No. 273, "For Assisting the Internal Affairs", Luhansk.
November 2020 – Medal «Военкор» 'War Correspondent', Moscow. Others to receive this award included Alexander Sladkov, and Alexander Kots.
Personal life
Phillips lived in London before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and now lives in Russian-occupied Mariupol. He is a fan of British cars, and is often seen driving a Rover 75, Jaguar or Range Rover. Phillips is known for often wearing Fred Perry clothing. He has named Shed Seven and Gene among his favourite bands. Phillips has a daughter in the UK.