A London court convicted two men Monday of conspiring to set fire to properties linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a scheme orchestrated by an unidentified Russian-speaking figure, according to a report by ABC News.
The fires in May 2025 damaged the home Starmer had lived in before becoming prime minister, as well as an apartment building he once owned a share of, and destroyed his former Toyota SUV. Nobody was injured.
Roman Lavrynovych, 22, a Ukrainian national, and Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, a Romanian citizen, were found guilty at London's Central Criminal Court of conspiracy to damage property by fire. Lavrynovych was also convicted of two counts of arson that could have recklessly endangered life. A third man, Petro Pochynok, 35, was acquitted.
The ringleader, who communicated through the Telegram messaging app under the name "El Money," offered Lavrynovych money to set the fires and obtain video evidence to post online. El Money's identity was never established and he was not charged.
Cmdr. Helen Flanagan, head of the counterterrorism team at the Metropolitan Police, said there was no evidence proving a hostile state orchestrated the fires, because police never discovered El Money's motive or who he worked for. "Clearly the tasking was to intimidate and create fear for the prime minister and to attack the U.K.," Flanagan said.
Lavrynovych admitted he set the fires. He said he needed the bounty of 3,000 pounds, equal to about 4,000 dollars, in cryptocurrency to pay for medical treatment his father needed. He also said El Money had threatened him. He told police he did not know who owned the properties until after the fires, and that he did not even know who Starmer was.
El Money provided Lavrynovych with detailed instructions identifying the targets, explaining how to mix flammable substances and outlining steps to avoid detection. After the fires, El Money told Lavrynovych to send a message with the code word "geranium" if he was detained by police. Shortly after receiving that message, Lavrynovych was arrested. He never received any payment.
Messages recovered from Lavrynovych's phone showed he had also conducted other paid vandalism, including painting car windshields black and placing anti-Islam posters in Muslim areas of London. Carpiuc served as a middleman in the scheme. Pochynok had allegedly been recruited to film the fires so that Lavrynovych could collect his payment.
The fires were set in the middle of the night. Occupants sleeping in the homes woke to smoke filling their front doors.
