BBC links Russia to sabotage plot targeting property owned by UK PM Starmer

British police said they had not proved the handler’s identity or found evidence of a state-backed threat, according to the BBC.

The BBC investigation centered on Roman Lavrynovych, a 22-year-old Ukrainian builder, and Stanislav Carpiuc, a 27-year-old Ukrainian-born Romanian national, who were convicted at the Old Bailey of conspiring to target property connected to Starmer. A third man, Petro Pochynok, 35, was found not guilty of conspiracy to commit arson.

The attacks included a fire set to a Toyota previously owned by Starmer in north London, another at the entrance to flats where he once lived and a third at the entrance to a house he had rented to his sister-in-law after moving to No. 10 Downing Street, the BBC reported.

Lavrynovych was recruited through Telegram by an anonymous handler using the initials EL, according to the investigation. The handler found him in a group for Ukrainians in London seeking work, then allegedly moved him from low-level tasks, including putting up posters and spraying graffiti, to arson.

The trial focused on financial motives and did not publicly identify the handler, who was saved in Lavrynovych’s phone as “EL Money,” the BBC said. Messages shown in court indicated the handler offered payment for the attacks. Other messages uncovered by the BBC showed EL praising Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, attacking Ukrainians and offering $1,000 and Russian citizenship for arson attacks.

The BBC said it found evidence suggesting EL may be Evgeny Lyukshin, a 23-year-old Russian linked to Foreign Ministry circles and the son of a senior Russian diplomat. The BBC said Lyukshin appeared in channels connected to fake British influence campaigns and had trained in a program tied to information warfare.

The report said Lyukshin had been identified in Telegram groups linked to Direct Action UK and Radio Southport, another channel the BBC said was created by Rybar, a sanctioned Russian media organization accused by Western governments of running influence operations. The BBC said Rybar also ran a media school at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

The BBC said it could not prove Lyukshin was EL. Lyukshin did not respond to its questions. Hours after the BBC contacted him, one Telegram channel the broadcaster had asked about disappeared, along with several other channels the BBC said had been created to inflame tensions in Britain.

The Russian Embassy rejected any attempt to connect Russia or its Foreign Ministry to unlawful activity. It told the BBC that Russia posed “no threat to the United Kingdom or its people” and had no aggressive intentions toward Britain.

The BBC said the arson plot was one element of a larger operation in which Russian-linked operatives used social media and Telegram to create fake far-right and purported Muslim groups, encourage vandalism and spread fear among British communities.

One group, Direct Action UK, presented itself as a British far-right movement but was created online by Russian-linked operatives, according to the BBC. Its channels promoted hatred of Muslims, called Starmer a traitor and offered money for violence and arson, including attacks on mosques and police.

The group appeared after the riots that followed the Southport murders and used images from the unrest to make itself look like a homegrown British movement, the BBC reported. Messages in the group carried signs of Russian origin, including Moscow timestamps, Cyrillic letters and Russian-style formatting of pound signs.

The BBC said six mosques and an Islamic school in London were vandalized last year after Direct Action offered payment for anti-Muslim graffiti. The group then used videos of the vandalism to promote the attacks online.

The BBC also reported that EL had earlier helped create a fake Islamic organization called the Takbir Foundation, which sought to recruit people to spray-paint Islamic graffiti in Britain. The apparent goal, according to the BBC, was to provoke far-right anger, with some accounts later switching from pro-Muslim messaging to anti-Muslim propaganda.

The BBC said the groups used paid vandalism to generate images and videos that could then be promoted online. In one case, the report said, EL posted an ad seeking photos of two buildings in Leyton after a mosque and Islamic school were vandalized, apparently to help publicize the damage online.

Hope Not Hate, an anti-racist group, and Tell Mama, which monitors anti-Muslim hate, both told the BBC they had raised concerns about Direct Action with counterterrorism police before the arson attacks linked to Starmer. Hope Not Hate said it warned that people behind the group might be grooming U.K. residents for attacks on mosques or Muslim targets.

The Metropolitan Police told the BBC it is investigating seven cases of criminal damage as anti-Muslim hate crimes. No arrests have been made, and police said they were keeping “an open mind” on whether the offenses were linked.

The BBC said Russia-based accounts later spread false claims about the motive for the attacks on Starmer-linked property, including an unfounded claim that the Ukrainian suspects were sex workers. The suspects did not know Starmer personally and were not sex workers, the BBC said.

The false claim was amplified online by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, according to the BBC. The report said Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev also reposted one of Robinson’s messages about the case.

Counter Terrorism Policing London said the attacks were intended to intimidate and create fear for the prime minister and to attack the United Kingdom, according to the BBC. But police said they had not been able to prove who EL was or who he was working for, and had “no evidence to suggest that this was a state-backed threat.”

Former British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told the BBC the evidence appeared to show a “very deliberate and definite escalation against the British state.” He said attacks on property linked to the prime minister would not have come from “a low-level individual” but from “the very top.”

The BBC said sources in the United Kingdom and Ukraine told the broadcaster that authorities had privately concluded Russia was behind the arson attacks.