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Patrick Lancaster

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Patrick Lancaster
Personal information
Born
Missouri, United States
OccupationVlogger
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2014–present
Genres
Subscribers769 thousand[1]
Views85 million[1]
Contents are inEnglish and Russian
Associated actsRusso-Ukrainian War, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
Last updated: March 2025

Patrick Lancaster is an American former member of the United States Armed Forces turned vlogger, podcaster and influencer.[2][3][4][5] Although described as pro-Kremlin, Lancaster has been referred to as a double agent, with his videos covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine while apparently attempting to spread Russian propaganda regularly revealing compromising Russian military information, which has been successfully used against Russia by Ukrainian forces, Western intelligence agencies, and Western media.[6][7][8] Lancaster's videos have also both promoted and caused internal conflict in Russia, and Lancaster has been called a 'provocateur'.[9][10]

Lancaster is known for filming staged scenes in his videos and attempting to pass them off as real, and has often been called a maker of staged videos / fake master.[11][12][3][5][13]

Biography

Early life and US Navy

Lancaster is originally from Missouri in the United States of America.[14][15] From 2001 to 2006 he was a sailor in the US Navy specializing as a cryptologic technician and rising to the rank of petty officer third class. He sailed on the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) from 2002 to 2006.[2]

Ukraine and Russia

According to Lancaster, he arrived in Ukraine in March 2014 to cover the aftermath of the Maidan revolution. He then settled in Donetsk later that year after meeting the woman who would become his wife, converting to Orthodox Christianity. In the early days of the War in Donbas, Lancaster worked for several Kremlin-backed media outlets, including RT and Zvezda.[3][15] From 2014-15 in Donbas, Lancaster worked as a cameraman for British journalist Graham Phillips. Writing of Lancaster in 2022, Phillips stated he is an “illiterate, grifting charlatan, with a journalistic acumen and ability lower than a potted plant.” From 2015 on, Lancaster has primarily created videos for his own YouTube channel.[3]

Lancaster's videos apparently attempt to promote Russian propaganda, yet they have purportedly exposed information of Russian war crimes, revealing locations, identities of perpetrators, and sensitive Russian military information.[16][6][8][11] In the early days of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vice Media and NBC News described him as the most popular of the pro-Kremlin influencers spreading Russian propaganda and disinformation on YouTube.[3] Despite this, in his videos, Lancaster refers to the Donbas, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions under Russian occupation as being 'part of Ukraine'.[17][18][19] Lancaster's videos from Ukraine gained considerable attention until July 2022, when Lancaster's output became sporadic, he then left Ukraine for an extended period, occasionally posting videos from Armenia. In October 2022, Lancaster returned to Ukraine, posting videos to his YouTube channel, and doing podcasts and interviews.[14][4] In June of 2023, Lancaster did a video report from Rostov-on-Don, where he expressed his support for the Wagner Group rebellion against the Russian Government taking place at that time.[20][21][22] Lancaster continued blogging from Russia, and Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine in July, and August of 2023, before returning to Armenia in September for an extended period.[23] In late 2024, Lancaster went to Georgia to do videos on the protests there.[13]

In the Kursk region in March 2025, in the context of the Kursk offensive (2024–2025), Lancaster recorded a video which sparked a conflict in Russia between prominent Russian tv presenter Vladimir Solovyov and representatives of the Chechen Republic in Russia.[9] Lancaster's videos from Russia's Kursk region also showed local residents speaking positively about the Ukrainian army.[10] In late April 2025, Lancaster gave an interview to Tucker Carlson where he dismissed claims of North Korean troops in Russia, stating that he had not found them 'not for the lack of trying'. However shortly after, both North Korea and Russia confirmed that North Korean troops had indeed been deployed in Russia.[24][25]

MH17

Lancaster has created and published multiple videos connected to the tragedy of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, and has received strong criticism for his actions in relation to MH17. In 2017 Lancaster claimed to have found skeletal remains of victims of the shoot-down of MH17 and pieces of the wreckage[26] which he, after a request from the Joint Investigation Team,[27][28] turned over to the local mayor with the request to transport them to The Netherlands.[29][30][31] After investigation by the Netherlands Forensic Institute the remains were found to contain remnants of 7 passengers, 4 of whom were Dutch.[29] Lancaster has been criticised for making propaganda out of the tragedy, insensitivity towards victims, and exploitation of the tragedy for personal gain.[32]

The Dutch authorities have repeatedly urged Lancaster to turn over all his findings, but as of 2024, he had yet to do so.[33][34]

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Over the years, Lancaster has sporadically done videos on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for his YouTube channel.[3] Lancaster has been accused of producing fake news and staged videos on the conflict.[7][12]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b "About PatrickLancasterNewsToday". YouTube.
  2. ^ a b SCHOGOL, JEFF (19 April 2022). "How a former US Navy sailor". taskandpurpose.com. Task and Purpose. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Gilbert, David (9 June 2022). "Meet the US 'Journalist' Helping Spread the Kremlin's Propaganda". Vice. Retrieved 30 November 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Patrick Lancaster: Eye Witness of Ukraine Attack on Civilian Marketplace". 23 January 2024. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  5. ^ a b Emma, Vardy (2022-04-22). "Russian propaganda efforts aided by pro-Kremlin content creators, research finds". NBC News. Retrieved 2023-01-17.
  6. ^ a b "Tracking the Faceless Killers who Mutilated and Executed a Ukrainian POW". 25 November 2022. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Patrick Lancaster: Double agent, blogger living on donations, "fake master"". 30 September 2023. Retrieved 13 February 2024.
  8. ^ a b "Russian troops living in stolen Ukrainian tents and using WW2-era sniper rifles". Daily Mirror. 11 June 2022. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
  9. ^ a b "Chechen authorities force Russian propagandist to apologise". 24 March 2025. Retrieved 25 March 2025.
  10. ^ a b "Patrick Lancaster heard the truth about the Armed Forces of Ukraine from residents of Kurshchyna". 29 March 2025. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
  11. ^ a b "From the Lancaster family: The story of an American reporter who settled in the DNR, was friends with Givi and used morgue bodies for fake news". 27 June 2022.
  12. ^ a b "Patrick Lancaster – freelance journalist, propagandist or ideologist? Analysis". 29 July 2022. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  13. ^ a b "Who Is the Journalist Shown in the Video Being Expelled From the Demonstration by Protesters?". 12 December 2024. Retrieved 25 March 2025.
  14. ^ a b Paladino, Jason; van Wagtendonk, Anya (18 April 2022). "Meet Patrick Lancaster: A U.S. Navy veteran from Missouri and Russia's favorite war propagandist". Grid News. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  15. ^ a b Martin Fornusek, Meet the foreign journalists promoting Russia’s war propaganda, 2022/09/01
  16. ^ Waters, Nick (28 February 2022). "'Exploiting Cadavers 'and 'Faked IEDs': Experts Debunk Staged Pre-War 'Provocation' in the Donbas". Bellingcat. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  17. ^ Patrick Lancaster – freelance journalist, propagandist or ideologist? Analysis. Patrick Lancaster. September 2022. Archived from the original on August 4, 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via YouTube.
  18. ^ Referendum in Mariupol from the Inside. Patrick Lancaster. September 2022. Archived from the original on August 4, 2023. Retrieved 2023-08-04 – via YouTube.
  19. ^ Showing the Berdyansk and Zaporizhzhia referendums. Patrick Lancaster. September 2022. Archived from the original on August 4, 2023. Retrieved 2023-08-04 – via YouTube.
  20. ^ ""Нормальный результат». Пригожин оценил итоги мятежа ЧВК «Вагнер"" ["Normal result". Prigozhin summed up the result of the Wagner mutiny] (in Russian). 25 June 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  21. ^ With Wagner "Coup" Leaving Russia (Exclusive Prigozhin) Special Report. Patrick Lancaster. 2023-06-25. Retrieved 2023-07-01 – via YouTube.
  22. ^ "Пригожин о результатах мятежа: «Нормально, всех взбодрили»" [Prigozhin about the mutiny result: "Normal result, everyone was cheered up"]. Главный Региональный (in Russian). 25 June 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  23. ^ "Armenian extremist militants have been brainwashed". 26 September 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  24. ^ "Transcript of Patrick Lancaster on The Tucker Carlson Show". 26 April 2025. Retrieved 17 May 2025.
  25. ^ "North Korea confirms it sent troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine". NPR. 28 April 2025. Retrieved 17 May 2025.
  26. ^ Annick van der Peet (2017-10-05). "Opnieuw mogelijk menselijke resten MH17 gevonden". BN DeStem. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  27. ^ "Mogelijk opnieuw menselijke resten MH17-ramp gevonden". RTL Nieuws. 2017-07-21. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  28. ^ "'Weer menselijke resten MH17-ramp gevonden'". Metro. 2017-07-21. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  29. ^ a b Bonne Kerstens (2017-11-14). "Menselijke resten MH17-slachtoffers geïdentificeerd". BN DeStem. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  30. ^ "Gevonden botresten zijn van slachtoffers MH-17". Leeuwarder Courant. 2017-11-14. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  31. ^ "Gevonden botresten zijn van slachtoffers MH-17". Dagblad van het Noorden. 2017-11-14. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  32. ^ Wilmer Heck (2017-07-21). "Mogelijk weer menselijke resten MH17-ramp naar Nederland". NRC. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  33. ^ "Appel op journalist om stoffelijke resten MH17". Reformatorisch Dagblad. 2018-09-10. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  34. ^ "Schriftelijke vragen Stieneke van der Graaf e.a. over de verklaring (nr. 2) van het bestuur van de Stichting Vliegramp MH17 inzake meldingen en publiciteit over lichamelijke resten op MH17-crashsite - ChristenUnie.nl". ChristenUnie. 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
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