UK court convicts two over PM-targeting plot run by mysterious Russian

A British court has convicted two men for a series of arson attacks targeting properties and a car linked to Prime Minister Keir Starmer .

On Monday, the jury in London found Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Romanian Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, guilty of conspiracy to commit arson. The verdict was delivered following a months-long trial held in the British capital.

The attacks were carried out over five days in May last year and targeted a house Starmer vacated when he became prime minister in 2024. A house he part-owned was also targeted, along with a car that used to belong to him.

While officials have said they have no evidence that the attacks were sponsored by a hostile state, an unverified report released the same day asserted that the attacks were part of a campaign of sabotage and disinformation run by Russian intelligence services.

Lavrynovych was also convicted on two counts of damaging property by fire and of being reckless as to whether the lives of others were endangered in the process.

A third man, Petro Pochynok, 35, was acquitted of conspiracy to damage property by fire.

Prosecutors told the court that Lavrynovych was directed by a Russian-speaking individual in May last year to carry out the attacks in return for a payment of around $4,000 in cryptocurrency. They said the person used the alias ‘El Money’ and contacted Lavrynovych via the messaging app Telegram.

No evidence was presented to suggest that ‘El Money’ was acting on behalf of a hostile state, but Counter Terrorism Policing London said the online handler was attempting to cause “unrest” in the UK.