Reform UK and Russian bribes: a Nathan Gill timeline

There is no overstating how significant the Nathan Gill case is. A British politician took multiple bribes from a pro-Russian actor connected to an associate of Putin. Today, he was sentenced to ten and a half years in prison.

Bethan David, head of counter-terrorism for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This case strikes at the heart of democratic integrity. Accepting bribes from foreign nationals to influence parliamentary proceedings undermines public trust and the proper functioning of government.”  

Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan police’s counter-terrorism command, said: “Am I worried? Yes. Do I think the Russians are trying to influence both political [sic] and society here in the United Kingdom? Can I say that this was absolutely a Russian attempt to do so? … No, this was pro-Russian elements of the Ukrainian government. Now, my own assessment of that is: it probably amounts to the same thing.”

It’s an extremely complex case, so we decided to set the context out in a timeline. We’ve gathered the essential facts about Gill, his interactions with his pro-Russian handler, Oleh Voloshyn, and the statements, detailed in the crown prosecutors’ charge sheet, that Gill made on the Kremlin’s behalf in exchange for payments. We are also including some of the evidence the Met has released in relation to the Gill case.

We’ve put those in chronological order and have added other essential facts: Gill’s travels, organised by the same Russian agent; his colleagues who accompanied him on these trips; their statements in the European parliament and to the press; and his close relationship with his boss Nigel Farage. 

There is no suggestion Farage ever took bribes and the Met stated that they had “found no connection to Nigel Farage in this investigation at all". They have stated that other politicians or former politicians are being investigated but no one else mentioned here has been linked to the Gill bribery case.

Finally, we’ve added some factual historical context relating to Russia, Ukraine and the European parliament.

Timeline by Charlie Young

Dec 2010 Ukip MEP Nigel Farage appears for the first time on Russia Today (RT), the state-funded Russian TV channel. He goes on to appear on the station many times until it is eventually banned by the UK in 2022. There is no suggestion Farage ever took bribes.

7 Feb 2013  Farage appears on RT to pull apart the EU’s plan to tackle online electoral disinformation. The RT segment is called the “Troll Patrol”. Farage says the EU is “no better than a banana republic”. He adds: “The word legal and the words European Union don’t fit together.” 

Feb-Mar 2014 Russia invades and annexes Crimea

25 Mar 2016 Nathan Gill appears on RT. Gill claims Turkey is funding Islamic State, a repeated claim of Putin’s that the US describes as propaganda 

21 Apr 2016 Farage backs “terrific” Nathan Gill for election to the Welsh Assembly. Farage says it was he who personally chose Gill as Ukip’s Welsh leader. "I have worked with Nathan Gill over a period of years and he's been terrific, he's never, ever, let me down … He's as honest as the day is long." 

4 Jul 2016 Farage quits as leader of Ukip and goes for lunch with Gill. Gill then appears on RT and defends Farage by quoting Enoch Powell – “all political careers end in failure” – adding that it’s true unless you can extricate yourself, which Farage has done. 

1 Jun 2017 Farage describes claims that he is a person of interest in the FBI Russia Investigation as “hysterical nonsense”, saying it is “extremely doubtful”. 

24 Jul 2017 Gill appears on RT to discuss the US’s sanctions on Russia: “What we are seeing here is some very jingoistic Russia-phobia legislation that is coming out primarily pushed by some very angry Democrats and CNN who are trying through the fog of smoke and mirrors to distract people from the real reasons why they voted for Trump in the election for the presidency.”

8-10 May 2018 Gill is brought to Ukraine by a Polish politician, Janusz Niedźwiecki, who is later revealed to be an agent for the Russians. Niedźwiecki organises the trip on behalf of Oleh Voloshyn and Nadia Sass. Gill joins Voloshyn at the “Victory March” in Dnipro – celebrating a Soviet war victory.

20-23 Sep Gill travels to Moldova. The trip appears to have been organised by Niedźwiecki’s organisation, the European Council on Democracy and Human Rights (ECDHR), reportedly an arm of the Kremlin’s soft power agency, Rossotrudnichestvo.

4 Oct 2018 The Ukrainian parliament votes to sanction Viktor Medvedchuk’s pro-Russian TV stations Channel 112 Ukraine and NewsOne for malign influence and the alleged “violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”  

30-31 Oct 2018 Gill visit Ukraine with two other Ukip MEPS, Jonathan Arnott and David Coburn, funded by Niedźwiecki’s ECDHR, reportedly on a “fact-finding trip” to meet journalists from Medvedchuk’s Channel 112 and NewsOne. According to Anton Shekhovtsov’s The Niedźwiecki Case: the Rise and Fall of a Polish Agent of the Kremlin Influence, page 51, the three are interviewed on NewsOne by Sass. Shekhovtsov also reports that Gill meets with Serhiy Kostynskiy, member of the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine, to tell him that “freedom of speech is paramount” and Channel 112 and NewsOne must not be punished. There is no suggestion Arnott and Coburn took bribes. 

6 Dec 2018 Gill leaves Ukip and becomes an independent MEP but remains a member of the European parliament’s EFDD group, led by Farage. 

11 Dec 2018  At the same session, Coburn and Arnott give similar speeches. Coburn says: “... No government can stand by and do nothing while its journalists are being attacked and murdered. This is thoroughly unacceptable …. The president of the Ukraine and the Rada parliament are, uh, plotting to close TV channels 112 and Channel One [sic]. Can this chamber truthfully say that Ukraine, which behaves this way, is ready for EU entry?” 

Arnott says: “Against the backdrop of violence against journalists, the proposed closure of TV channels, I say this to the president and government of Ukraine. Please defend freedom… please ensure freedom of the press.” Speaking to the Guardian this month, Arnott rejected any suggestion that he had links to Russia or was acting in its interests and pointed to another part of his speech in which he said “the best response to a loss of freedom is increased freedom”.

11 / 12 Dec 2018 Sass interviews Gill for Channel 112 Ukraine and is photographed with him by the European parliament’s media wall.

11 / 12 Dec 2018 Sass has her photograph taken with Farage outside the European parliament. Years later she posts this picture on social media - see entry for 24 July 2024 and says she “will still miss” Farage and his team.

9 Jan 2019 Gill and Arnott meet with the President of the European parliament, Antonio Tajani, to discuss the alleged suppression of freedom of speech in Ukraine and violence against journalists. Gill presents Tajani with letters and signatures from journalists from Channel 112 and NewsOne, handed to Gill and Arnott during their earlier visit to Kyiv. In a Facebook post, Gill writes: “Right now in Ukraine journalists are being attacked, the Ukrainian Parliament has voted for sanctions against two tv channels and journalists have been murdered.”

8 Feb 2019 Farage announces he will join the newly formed Brexit party.

13 Feb 2019 Gill, Coburn and a German MEP are announced as unremunerated appointees to the new international board of NewsOne and Channel 112. Voloshyn also sits on the new board. According to Shekhovtsov’s Rise and Fall, page 52: “The idea behind the creation of the board was that the inclusion of three MEPs would make it harder for the Ukrainian authorities to sanction 112 Ukraine and News One.”

Taras Kozak, then the owner of Channel 112 Ukraine and NewsOne, says: “I am very grateful to Nathan ... and David, who have agreed today to be the members of the editorial board of both TV channels. They will help to protect our interests.”  

11 Mar 2019 Arnott dismisses the idea that there was Russian interference in Brexit as falling for Russian trolling. In a speech in the European parliament, he says: “It seems to me that a large chunk of Russia's foreign policy approach is the nation-state equivalent of trolling. They're trying to provoke us into overreacting to the wrong things … This notion that Russia was meddling in the British referendum campaign is nonsense.”

23-26 May 2019 European parliament elections. The Brexit party wins 29 of 73 UK seats.

16 Jul 2019 Gill gives a speech in the European parliament about Ursula von der Leyen’s support for an EU army.  “[Von der Leyen] ​is ​open ​about ​her ​desire ​to ​build ​an ​EU ​army, ​yet ​says ​that ​we ​will ​be ​committed ​to ​Nato. ​​Well, ​which ​one ​is ​it? ​Because ​you ​cannot ​serve ​two ​masters.” 

17 Jul 2019 Gill organises and hosts Medvedchuk’s presentation of his “Peace Plan for Donbass” to MEPs at the European parliament. The event is broadcast live on Channel 112 and NewsOne. 

18 Jul 2019 Vladimir Putin hosts Medvedchuk at the Kremlin to highlight the ‘Peace Plan for Donbass’. Putin endorses the plan and appears to celebrate Medvedchuk’s appearance in the European Parliament as an unprecedented breakthrough in a western forum. 

19 Jul 2019 Sass posts stills on her Instagram (example pictured below) of a Channel 112 broadcast in the European parliament. Gill sits to her left. Maximilian Krah of the German far-right AfD party sits to her right. Krah is also an associate of Medvedchuk and Niedźwiecki.  

9 Oct 2019 Gill gives a speech in the European parliament on freedom of opinion and expression in Ukraine. “Ukraine has a new president, Zelenskyy, who is following in the same old tired pattern, despite claiming to be different. He has used legal process to strip TV stations of their licences and is threatening those that he does not like.”

10 Oct 2019 Gill tweets a clip of himself in the chamber saying: “Every dictatorship and repressive regime immediately seeks to close down the press and media to silence opposition. We should be seriously concerned with what is going on in Ukraine right now.” 

8 Nov 2019 Farage and Gill campaign together at a general election rally in Pontypool.

2 Dec 2019 Farage appears with Gill in Buckley, north Wales. Farage echoes a line Gill has used (see 16 July 2019 entry above) about a European Defence Union: “Nato and a European Defence Union cannot coexist equally. No man effectively can serve both. We’ve got a decision to make.”

18 Dec 2019 Shekhovtsov’s Rise and Fall (page 54) reports that Gill and another Brexit MEP attend a “semi-clandestine” side event in the European parliament, hosted by Niedźwiecki’s ECDHR, with Voloshyn, Sass and Niedźwiecki. The event is devoted to “violence against journalists and restrictions on freedom of speech in Ukraine: challenges for Europe and its values”.

31 Jan 2020 The UK leaves the EU.

May 2020 Channel 112 is fined for spreading a claim made by a Communist Party of Ukraine deputy claiming that the war in the Donbass is a “civil war”. 

21 Jul 2020 The UK parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC) publishes its Russia Report. In it, the ISC states: “The UK is clearly a target for Russia’s disinformation campaigns and political influence operations and must therefore equip itself to counter such efforts.” The report says that the UK government has “actively avoided looking for evidence”.

6 Jan 2021 The Brexit party officially changes its name to Reform UK.

2 Feb 2021 The National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine sanctions and shut down Channel 112. It continues to stream on YouTube.

26 Mar 2021 Gill becomes leader of Reform UK in Wales. (This is short-lived; the office of Reform leader in Wales is abolished in June.)

31 May 2021 Niedźwiecki is arrested by Polish counter-intelligence and charged with spying for Russia 

13 Sep 2021 Gill is arrested by counter-terrorism officers at Manchester Airport, en route to speak at a Kremlin-backed international conference on “The Role of Civil Society in Ensuring Democratic Standards of Organising and Conducting Elections” at Lumonosov Moscow State University. He was due to give a speech entitled: “The Same Technology That Gives Us Crypto Currencies Also Will Change the Way That We Vote”.   

20 Sep 2021 State Duma elections are held across Russia. New voting machines – a subject close to the topic of Gill’s planned speech – are the source of widespread controversy as Putin’s United Russia party wins a larger than expected majority. Protesters, opposition parties and the west call the election a large-scale fraud. 

20 Jan 2022 The US Treasury Department sanctions Voloshyn and Kozak for engaging “in Russian government-directed influence activities to destabilize Ukraine.”  

13-14 Feb 2022 Following the US sanctions on Voloshyn, and less than two weeks before Russia invades Ukraine, Voloshyn and Sass flee the country, reportedly to Belarus. 

24 Feb 2022 The Russian invasion of Ukraine begins. 

3 Mar 2022 Gill is interviewed by the UK authorities under caution and makes no comment (below):

24 Mar 2022 The UK government sanctions Voloshyn for efforts to destabilise the Ukrainian government, and for spreading disinformation and pro-Russian narratives. 

13 Apr 2022 Medvedchuk is arrested by the Ukrainian security services while trying to flee the country with Russia’s help. He is later imprisoned for treason, but then released and transferred to Russia in a prisoner swap deal with Putin in September. 

19 Jan 2023 The European court of human rights requests that the UK government launch an independent inquiry into allegations of Russian interference in British elections.   

10 Feb 2023 Voloshyn is accused of state treason in Ukraine for “promot[ing] the military-political leadership of the Russian Federation in subversive activities against Ukraine”. He is charged in absentia on 1 May.  

3 Apr and 17 Apr 2024 Sass tweets photographs of herself and Farage, both taken in 2018. In the first, she writes that she “will still miss” Farage and his team: “No one has ever rattled the Brussels swamp as he did.” Voloshyn replies: “Yeah, Ursula is lucky he is not anymore in the room.” In the second, taken in GIll’s office, Farage holds up a “Leave and Let Die” T-shirt she says she gave him “as a farewell to EU”. Following reports resurfacing these messages in October 2024, Sass responds to the Nerve: “I hardly know Nigel Farage.”  

21 Jun 2024 Farage says “we provoked this war”, referring to EU and Nato expansionism in Ukraine.

30 Jul 2024 In a platform speech at Reform UK’s conference, Farage talks of the “Russia hoax”. “We won the referendum so they concluded: it must be Russia. It must be the Russians that funded the Leave campaign. And this went on for year after year.”

21 Nov 2024 Farage says Ukraine winning the war against Russia is “for the birds”. 

14 Mar 2025 Gill appears at the Old Bailey and is charged with eight counts of bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. Gill’s lawyer, Clare Ashcroft, indicates that he intends to plead not guilty. 

26 Sep 2025 Gill appears at the Old Bailey. He pleads guilty to eight counts of bribery. Sentencing is set for 21 Nov.

10 Oct 2025 Farage reacts to Gill’s conviction while campaigning for Reform candidate Llŷr Powell – who worked for Gill 18 months –- in the Caerphilly byelection. Farage calls Gill a “bad apple,” adding: “I believe, 100 per cent, with all my heart, there's nobody else.” He adds: “Gill is particularly shocking because I knew him as a devout Christian, very clean-living, honest person. So I’m deeply shocked. But, you know, that is a different time. I’m the only one [in Reform] that really knew him, going back a long way.” 

16 Oct 2025 In an interview with Mishal Husain on Bloomberg News, Nigel Farage calls Vladimir Putin a “very bad dude”. He also says the “endless eastward expansion of Nato and the EU” contributed to Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine.

Timeline by Charlie Young

Read Carole Cadwalladr’s investigation into the Nathan Gill affair and John Sweeney’s reporting on Reform UK here