Amateur saboteurs: the young men carrying out attacks for gangs, Russia and Iran

Shortly after midnight on May 13, 2025, Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych messaged someone he knew as ‘EL Money’, a mystery figure who had instructed him to commit three arson attacks on property linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

With his conviction on Monday, the 22-year-old Lavrynovych joins a growing list of mainly young men, lured on social media and found guilty in Britain of carrying out serious criminal acts on behalf of shadowy online figures for money which, more often than not, they never even received.

Foreign states using unreliable and untrained individuals -many of them minors – to ​carry out such tasks was almost unheard of until recent years but a flurry of incidents in Britain and across Europe has brought the issue into focus.

The authorities ⁠say the aim is to sow unrest and division while allowing hostile governments to deny any involvement.

Read more: Reuters