UK court convicts 3 men over arson attack authorities say was organized by Russian intelligence

LONDON (AP) — A British jury convicted three men on Tuesday of arson in an attack on an east London warehouse that was storing equipment destined for Ukraine. Authorities said Russian intelligence was behind the plot.

Prosecutors said the March 20, 2024, attack was planned by agents of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, acting on behalf of Russian military intelligence. The British government has deemed Wagner a terrorist organization.

The prosecution 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. The StarLinks are frequently used by Ukraine's military in fending off Russia's invasion.

Authorities said the arson was part of a campaign of disruption across Europe that Western officials blame on Moscow and its proxies.

A jury at London’s Central Criminal Court found Jakeem Rose, 23; Ugnius Asmena, 20; and Nii Mensah, 23 guilty of aggravated arson.

A fourth man, Paul English, 61, was acquitted. English told police that while he was paid to drive the others, he knew nothing about the fire.

The fire caused around 1 million pounds ($1.35 million) worth of damage. Prosecutors said the attack was orchestrated by Dylan Earl, 21, and Jake Reeves, 23, who pleaded guilty to aggravated arson on behalf of the Wagner Group before the trial started. They also pleaded guilty to offenses under the U.K.’s National Security Act 2023.

Cmdr. Dominic Murphy, head of Counter Terrorism Command at London’s Metropolitan Police, said the case was a “clear example of an organization 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 neighborhood 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 Ukraine, told the court in a written statement that he is considered "a key enemy of the Russian state and received daily death threats.”

Two other men were on trial in connection with the arson and related plots. Ashton Evans, 20, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts relating to the Mayfair plot but cleared of failing to tell authorities about the warehouse arson. Dmitrijus Paulauskas, 23, was cleared of both.

Jurors were shown evidence from CCTV cameras and of the arson Mensah filmed on his phone, along with a message he sent Earl later saying: “Bro lol it’s on the news.”

They were also shown hundreds of messages among the men and between Earl and a Russian recruiter.

Earl was the first person to be charged under the National Security Act, which created new measures to combat espionage, political interference and benefiting from foreign intelligence services.

Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said the convicted defendants would be sentenced in the fall.

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless contributed to this story.

These undated handout photos provided by the London Metropolitan Police on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, show Dylan Earl, left and Jake Reeves, right. (London Metropolitan Police via AP)

In this undated handout photo taken in 2024 and provided by the London Metropolitan Police on Monday, June 9, 2025, authorities say Jakeem Rose and Nii Mensah can be seen shortly before setting fire to a warehouse in east London. (London Metropolitan Police via AP)

This undated handout photo taken in 2024 and provided by the London Metropolitan Police on Monday, June 9, 2025, shows damage to a warehouse in east London which was storing goods for Ukraine, after a fire which prosecutors said was organized on behalf of Russia's intelligence services. (London Metropolitan Police via AP)

This undated handout photo taken in 2024 and provided by the London Metropolitan Police on Monday, June 9, 2025, shows damage to a warehouse in east London which was storing goods for Ukraine, after a fire which prosecutors said was organized on behalf of Russia's intelligence services. (London Metropolitan Police via AP)

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.

The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.

The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.

The U.S.-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Islamic State group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria's national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”

The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.

Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.

The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.

On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.

Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.

“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”

Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.

Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.

“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.

Associated Press journalist Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Sandbag barriers used as fighting positions by Kurdish fighters, left inside a destroyed mosque in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

People flee the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

A Syrian military police convoy enters the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Burned vehicles and ammunitions left at one of the Kurdish fighters positions at the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, where clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters have been taking place in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)