Two men jailed for arson attacks on property linked to UK prime minister

The Ukrainian-born men with alleged links to Russia targeted property associated with Keir Starmer in May 2025.Two men have been jailed over a series of arson ⁠attacks targeting property belonging to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.The pair – Ukrainian-born Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Stanislav Carpiuc, 27 – were offered money to carry out the attacks by a Russian-speaking figure using the name “El Money” via messaging app Telegram, according to prosecutors.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Inside the ‘unacceptable’ UK fair selling property in Israeli settlementslist 2 of 4UK’s Starmer says Russian warship’s warning shots in Channel ‘reckless’list 3 of 4Andy Burnham wins key UK by-election, paving way to challenge Keir Starmerlist 4 of 4‘I prefer Burnham’: Starmer’s future hangs in balance after UK by-electionend of listJudge Neil Garnham said on Friday that Ukrainian national Lavrynovych was a “useful idiot” acting as a “pawn” for some “unknown cause” which put lives at risk. Lavrynovych has been given a seven-year jail sentence.“You agreed to carry out this mindless piece of arson for money. You were not a man of great principle, and you were easily bought,” the judge added.Romanian national Carpiuc, who was born in Ukraine, supported and encouraged Lavrynovych and was handed a two-year jail sentence.The men carried out overnight attacks in May 2025 targeting London houses linked to Starmer – including his former residence where his sister-in-law and her family were living – and a Toyota car he formerly owned.They were convicted by a jury on Monday of conspiring to damage property by fire following a trial at London’s Old Bailey court.Lavrynovych, who the prosecution said lit all three fires, was convicted on two additional counts of arson reckless of danger to life.Prosecutors said the perpetrators did not express any political motivation for carrying out the crimes, and their motive was financial.El Money contacted Lavrynovych in both Russian and Ukrainian, and prosecutors did not state who or what was believed to be behind the account. Lavrynovych told the court he did not know who he was targeting, while the court was shown messages ⁠in which El Money told Lavrynovych he needed to flee the UK after carrying out the attacks on the home “of a very high-ranking individual in Britain”.