Scottish journalist held in Ukraine is freed

A BRITISH journalist who was detained by Ukrainian soldiers was reported to have been released last night.

Graham Phillips, in a screengrab taken from one of his videos recorded in Ukraine. Picture: Contributed

Graham Phillips, 35, had been held in the flashpoint city of Mariupol, according to Russia Today, one of the media outlets he works for.

Russia Today said Mr Phillips, who grew up in Nottingham before moving to Scotland, was taken to the British consulate but added it was unable to make any contact with him and was “very concerned about his situation”.

Tweets he posted on Tuesday said he had secretly filmed at the city morgue in Mariupol, where a doctor told him the bodies of 11 killed in clashes on 9 May were being held.

Meanwhile, MPs in the Russian parliament have expressed outrage following the detention of two Russian journalists. Marat Saichenko and Oleg Sidyakin, from the pro-Kremlin news channel LifeNews, were detained by soldiers in eastern Ukraine.