Explained: Two Brits in Ukraine, one pro-Russia, the other pro-Ukraine, and a controversy

The video was flagged in Parliament by MP Robert Jenrick, who said Aslin had been “interviewed under duress for propaganda purposes”. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, too, told MPs he was concerned the blogger was spreading “propaganda messages”.

Who is Graham Phillips?

Nottingham-born Graham Phillip’s career as a self-proclaimed “independent journalist” has been unconventional to say the least. According to a 2014 interview with BuzzFeed News, he decided to quit his job as a civil servant in the UK in 2010 and move to Ukraine in search of a fresh start. It was here that he set up his first personal blog, ‘Brit in Ukraine’, which mostly consisted of musings about his life in Kyiv.

During Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014, Phillips began sharing self-recorded pro-Russia clips on YouTube, which caught the eye of the Kremlin-backed RT news channel. They briefly hired him as a freelance journalist and would invite him on panels discussing the protests by ordinary Ukrainians as a dissenting western voice. Notably, he was detained near Mariupol by Ukrainian forces in 2014, and later released.

Best known for his guerrilla-style videos from Ukraine, he has over 2,72,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel. His pro-Russia reportage, which he claims is entirely self-funded, has earned him several medals from the Kremlin over the years.

In recent weeks, he has been sharing a number videos from Ukraine’s war-torn cities, and has even claimed in one that the Bucha massacre was “staged”. He has also suggested Ukraine is run by neo-Nazis, and has accused Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy of spreading propaganda against Russia through the western media.

Why is the video of Aiden Aslin controversial?

In the 44-minute video shared on YouTube, Phillips questioned a handcuffed Aslin, insisting that he was fighting as a mercenary. When asked if he was being forced to speak to the media, Aslin repeatedly said he was talking on his own accord. He was also pushed to admit he is a mercenary, and therefore not a legitimate Ukrainian combatant.

Asked what he would do to “atone for the evil he has been part of” as a soldier in the Ukrainian military, and what he would tell other British nationals who may follow him to fight in Ukraine, he said: “If you go, you’re an idiot like myself.”

“I’m extremely lucky to be alive considering the situation in Mariupol,” he is heard saying at one point. Speaking about Zelensky, he said: “He left us. Look at Mariupol before and look at it now. If we left Donbass, Mariupol would still be a city. Right now it’s just graves.”

But Aslin’s family insists he was speaking under duress, and had “clearly suffered physical injuries”. “Using images and videos of prisoners of war is in contravention of the Geneva Convention and must stop,” the family said, according to The Guardian.

In their statement, the family said Aiden had moved to Ukraine in 2018. He met his wife and eventually decided to settle down in Mykolaiv. He joined the Ukrainian marines and served for almost four years before the Russia-Ukraine war. “Aiden was making plans for his future outside the military but, like all Ukrainians, his life was turned upside down by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s barbarous invasion. He has played his part in defending Ukraine’s right to self-determination,” the statement, obtained by The Guardian, read.

How have UK lawmakers responded?

Earlier this month, PM Johnson urged the Russian government to treat Aslin “humanely and compassionately”. “I understand he had been serving in the Ukrainian forces for some time, and the situation was very different from that of a mercenary,” he added.

In a video aired on Russian state television, Aslin and another British prisoner, Shaun Pinner, asked to be released in exchange for pro-Moscow Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who was detained while trying to flee Ukraine earlier this month.

The family’s concerns were raised in Parliament by their local MP from Newark, Nottinghamshire, Robert Jenrick. He urged the British government to step in to prevent Phillip from “spreading disinformation”, saying he was “completely brainwashed by the Russian government”.

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