British Reporter's Diatribe At Ukrainian POW Rankles Kyiv
By Mike Eckel & Andy Heil
As Graham Phillips tells it, back in the late 1990s as a Dundee University dual major in philosophy and history and a thespian performing under the stage name Brandon Reed, he saw his "career either as journalism, or writing for the theater."
He appears, after stints in state-sector marketing and communications, publishing, and teaching, to have settled for both.
A British expat reporter and videographer who fancies himself a "truth speaker" out to redeem independent journalism in the fog of the Russia-backed war in eastern Ukraine, Phillips' critics describe him as a propagandist, plain and simple.
In his latest clip to have sparked outrage, Phillips uses his stilted Russian and two minutes of exclusive access (apparently granted by the separatists) to berate a badly disabled Ukrainian man moments before his handover to Kyiv authorities as part of a prisoner swap.
Subtitled in English, the video features Phillips climbing into a minivan marked with a red cross before Volodymyr Zhemchuhov is exchanged for several separatists:
Read the full story here.
Here is today's map of the latest situation in the Donbas conflict zone, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry (CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE):
