LONDON (AP) — A British judge on Friday sentenced five men for their roles in an arson attack in London that authorities say was masterminded by Russian intelligence as part of a wider campaign of sabotage and disruption.
The sentences ranged from seven to 17 years in prison.
The men were involved in a plot to set fire to a warehouse in east London in March 2024 that contained satellite communication devices destined for Ukraine. British prosecutors said that the arson — organized on behalf of the Wagner paramilitary group — was intimately connected to the Russian state and likely linked to another arson attack against a warehouse in Spain.
The fire is one of at least 25 arson or explosives plots across Europe linked to Russia by Western officials that The Associated Press has documented since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, 2022.
European intelligence officials have told the AP that the risk of death or serious injury is rising as saboteurs directed by Russia set fires near homes and businesses, plant explosives or build bombs. The pattern of attacks is similar across Europe and the goal, the officials say, is to undermine support for Ukraine, sow fear and create conflict.
“This offence was part of a series of European-wide sabotage operations,” prosecutor Duncan Penny said.
The actions of Dylan Earl — the British man who arranged the arson — constituted a “sustained campaign of terrorism and sabotage on U.K. soil, carried out in support of a foreign power — the Russian Federation — and its war of aggression against Ukraine,” Penny said.
The sentences were the first a British court imposed for violating the National Security Act, which was introduced in 2023 to address threats from foreign states including espionage and sabotage. U.K. counterterrorism police said that three men were arrested under the act on Thursday on suspicion of spying for Russia.
Sentencing Earl, 21, to 17 years in prison, Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said that he was a member of numerous pro-Russia propaganda channels on Telegram and part of a “pernicious” plot organized by Moscow. Earl played “a leading role in terrorist activities,” she said.
The arson in East London caused 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) in damage to a warehouse owned by a Ukrainian couple who shipped StarLink satellite communication devices to Ukraine. The devices are often used by the Ukrainian military.
The couple also own a business on the outskirts of Madrid that was set on fire 10 days after the attack in London, a counterterrorism officer from the Metropolitan Police told the court in a statement.
“The method used, the time of night, the time of year, and the business targeted strongly suggest the two incidents … may be linked,” Penny said, reading the officer’s statement.
During the trial, the jury was shown messages where Earl and his co-conspirators also talked about burning down London businesses owned by Evgeny Chichvarkin — a Russian tycoon who delivered supplies to Ukraine — and kidnapping him.
At sentencing, the court heard how Earl also tried to pay someone identified as a serving British soldier for intelligence for the Wagner Group — a mercenary organization whose operations were taken over by Russia’s Defense Ministry in 2023.
Earl also discussed burning down a warehouse in the Czech Republic for 35,000 pounds ($47,000), a day after the London arson, kidnapping another billionaire for the purposes of extortion and the need to collect bank card details on European residents.
Earl’s defense attorney Paul Hynes painted him as a “sad” fantasist who boasted to his Russian recruiter that he could be “the best spy you have ever seen” as well as of having ties to international criminal gangs.
Hynes said that Earl had a difficult childhood and saw the world through the “delusional prism of online gaming.”
He communicated on Telegram with Privet Bot — an account which posted multiple times in a Telegram channel linked to the Wagner Group, asking for people to join the battle against the West. The Metropolitan Police on Friday released an image of Earl holding up his passport to confirm his identity to Privet Bot — who likely was linked to Russian military intelligence, the court heard.
The recruiter and Earl communicated predominantly in Russian with Earl using Google to translate.
Privet Bot asked Earl to “get access to bank accounts containing money destined for Ukraine,” including Russian assets frozen after President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the country.
“We need those who are our kindred spirit,” the Russian recruiter said.
Earl was “easy meat” for the “sophisticated operatives” from the Wagner Group, Hynes said. But Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb disagreed with that assessment and said that he was motivated by “simple and ugly greed.”
Police and intelligence services are grappling with similar attacks throughout Europe, including where people have been recruited online.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Polish authorities have investigated multiple arson attacks on shopping centers, industrial areas and apartment buildings which show how Russian operatives often “follow the same pattern” in attacks across Europe, said Jacek Dobrzyński spokesperson for Poland’s security minister. Authorities Tuesday said that they detained people over another plot to send explosives to Ukraine.
In 2024, a Colombian man was directed on the Telegram messaging app to set fire to two warehouses in Poland and then to travel to the Czech capital, Prague, to set fire to public buses.
Like Earl, he was given the location for the fires, instructions on how and when to set them and told to provide video evidence to Russia’s intelligence services to get paid, Dobrzyński told the AP.
The goal of the arson attacks is to “intimidate people,” create conflict and to undermine European societies and support for Ukraine, Dobrzyński said. It’s also about testing the response of law enforcement and — because the plots often involve multiple people and lines of investigation — draining police resources, he said.
Five men were sentenced Friday alongside Earl for their roles in the arson.
Both Earl and his co-conspirator Jake Reeves, 23, “willingly acted as hostile agents on behalf of the Russian state,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, head of Counter Terrorism Policing at the Metropolitan Police. Reeves was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
But Nii Mensah, 23, Jakeem Rose, 23; Ugnius Asmena, 20 didn’t know they were working for Russia. They were found guilty of aggravated arson and sentenced to nine years; eight years, 10 months, and seven years in prison, respectively. Ashton Evans, 20, was sentenced to nine years in prison for failing to disclose information about terrorist acts.
When armed police swooped on Earl to arrest him in the parking lot of a home improvement store in April 2024, they told him he was being arrested under the new powers of the National Security Act.
“I hope you guys have some good proof,” Earl told the officers. “I hope I get a good story for this.”
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