Attack on equipment for Ukraine was planned by Wagner mercenaries on behalf of Russian intelligence, prosecutors said.
Published On 9 Jul 2025
A jury in the United Kingdom has convicted three men of arson following an attack on an east London warehouse that was storing Starlink satellite equipment destined for Ukraine.
Prosecutors had alleged that the attack on March 20, 2024, was planned by agents of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, acting on behalf of Russian military intelligence.
Jakeem Rose, 23, Ugnius Asmena, 20, and Nii Mensah, 23, were found guilty of aggravated arson on Tuesday at London’s Old Bailey court.
Jurors cleared a fourth man, Paul English, 61, who told police that while he was paid to drive the others, he knew nothing about the fire.
Dylan Earl, 21, who was accused of orchestrating the attack, and Jake Reeves, 23, had already pleaded guilty to aggravated arson and offences under the UK’s National Security Act 2023.
Prosecutors said Wagner used British intermediaries to recruit the men to target an industrial unit in Leyton, east London, where generators and Starlink satellite equipment bound for Ukraine were being stored.
Authorities cast the arson, which caused about 1 million pounds ($1.35m) of damage, as part of a campaign of disruption across Europe that Western officials blame on Moscow and its proxies.
Ukraine’s military frequently uses Starlink in its effort to fend off Russia’s invasion.
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of Counter Terrorism Command at London’s Metropolitan Police, said the case was a “clear example of an organisation linked to the Russian state using ‘proxies’, in this case British men, to carry out very serious criminal activity in this country”.
He said Earl and Reeves “willingly acted as hostile agents on behalf of the Russian state,” adding that it was “only by good fortune nobody was seriously injured or worse”.
Earl also admitted to plotting to set fire to a wine shop and a restaurant in the upmarket London neighbourhood of Mayfair, as well as plans to kidnap their owner, Evgeny Chichvarkin.
Chichvarkin, an exiled Russian tycoon who has been vocal in his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukr