A British court handed down prison sentences to six British men recruited by the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group to carry out an arson attack on a London warehouse holding aid for Ukraine on Friday.
The warehouse, in Leyton, East London, was being used to store Starlink equipment and humanitarian supplies destined for Ukraine when it was set alight on March 20, 2024. The fire caused more than £1 million ($1.3 million) worth of damage.
According to Sky News, 21-year-old ringleader Dylan Earl was planning to abduct wealthy Russian dissident Evgeny Chichvarkin at the time of his arrest. The group were also plotting further arson attacks, including on Chichvarkin’s restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair, central London.
Earl, who was recruited by a Wagner operative he met on Telegram, received a 23 year sentence, of which 17 years will be spent in prison. The other five men, who are also in their early twenties, received prison sentences of 12, 10, nine, eight, and nine years respectively.
Handing down the sentences at the Old Bailey, the London court reserved for trying the most serious offenses committed on British soil, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb characterized the group’s offending as part of a “planned campaign of terrorism and sabotage” orchestrated by Russia.
“This case is about the efforts of the Russian Federation to gain pernicious global influence using social media to enlist saboteurs vast distances from Moscow,” she said.
Earl and his co-conspirators were convicted under the National Security Act, legislation introduced by the UK government in 2023 in part to address the threat posed by “espionage, sabotage and persons working for foreign powers.”
The Wagner Group, a mercenary organization contracted to work on behalf of Russia, is proscribed as a terrorist organization under British law – which means that supporting the group is in itself a criminal offense.
Although Wagner has lost the Kremlin’s trust since 2023 – when founder Yevgeny Prigozhin rebelled against Russian President Vladimir Putin before dying in a helicopter crash – the group remains active, particularly in Africa.
(Kyiv post)