Note:
- Aslin is being held in Donetsk by DPR forces
- Philips is an independent journalist. Here is his Wiki page:
Years up to 2022
In 2012, Phillips worked in Kyiv as a journalist for What’s On magazine.
Phillips started covering the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014, leading to a ban from Ukraine the same year for “supporting terrorism” as a “Kremlin propagandist“. In late 2014, Phillips was wounded by shrapnel while filming reportage on the frontlines by Donetsk.
In 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. Phillips also reported extensively on the Brexit referendum in the UK, and openly declared himself a Brexit supporter.
In 2018, Phillips released a film, Brit in Crimea, where he took Scottish businesman Les Scott on holiday to Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. In 2018, Phillips further covered the World Cup 2018 from Russia as a fan of the England national team.
Phillips sparked outrage in Kosovo in 2019 when he called Ramush Haradinaj, Hashim Thaçi, and other Kosovar leaders “war criminals and terrorists”.
In 2021, Phillips released a new documentary about the sinking of the MS Estonia.
2022
Despite receiving a lifetime ban in 2014, Phillips returned to report from Ukraine in 2022, in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On April 5th of 2022, Phillips uploaded a video to his YouTube channel, casting doubt that the Bucha massacre was committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Journalistic position
Phillips has been described as ‘pro-Russia’, and ‘pro-Kremlin’, but he maintains his reporting is “independent.”[3]
Econophysics2020 