Three men have been sentenced for setting fire to a London warehouse that supplied Starlink equipment to Ukraine. Investigation has found links to the Wagner Group.
A jury in London has found three men guilty of setting fire to a warehouse in the east of the city in connection with the supply of Starlink satellite equipment to Ukraine. The attack, according to investigators, was carried out on orders from the Russian terrorist organization Wagner Group.
Sky News reports this.
The fire occurred on 20 March 2023 at the site in Leyton. The fire destroyed the site and caused damage worth approximately £1 million.
The defendants, Nii Kojo Mensah and Jakeem Rose, 23, and Ugnius Azmena, 20, denied the charges but were found guilty of aggravated arson. Another suspect, Paul English, 61, was acquitted.
The attack was masterminded by Dylan Earle, 20, and Jake Reeves, 23. The prosecution says they acted in coordination with the Wagner Group and recruited the perpetrators for a series of attacks. Both pleaded guilty under Britain's new National Security Act: Earle to arson and preparation of a crime, Reeves to cooperating with foreign intelligence.
Prosecutors said the aim of the attack was to further Russian interests and undermine support for Ukraine. In addition to the arson attack, investigators say they were planning to attack a restaurant and a wine shop in Mayfair and kidnap their owner, a prominent Russian opposition figure.
This is the first case in the UK where convictions have been made under the new counter-intelligence legislation.
In addition to the main defendants, there were two others involved in the case: 20-year-old Ashton Evans was found guilty of concealing a conspiracy related to the kidnapping plan, but acquitted of the part concerning the composition of 23-year-old Dmirjus Paulauskas, the jury acquitted him completely after almost a day of deliberations.
Recall that on March 20, 2024, a large-scale fire broke out at an industrial plant in Leyton, East London. The fire involved the warehouses of two parcel delivery services – Oddisey and Meest UK. Both companies are owned by Ukrainian spouses, Mykhailo and Olena Boykov, who live in London.
