LONDON (AP) — A British court sent two men to prison Friday for setting fire to property linked to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a plot orchestrated by a mysterious Russian-speaking figure.
Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Stanislav Carpiuc, a 27-year-old Romanian citizen, were imprisoned for 7 years and 2 years, respectively, after being found guilty of conspiracy to damage property by fire.
The men targeted a car and two properties linked to Starmer over three nights in May 2025 on the orders of a Russian-speaking figure going by the name of “El Money,” according to prosecutors. The identity of El Money, who communicated on the messaging app Telegram with Lavrynovych, was never revealed and they were not charged.
Lavrynovych was a “useful idiot, a fool,” who could be manipulated to his handler’s advantage, Judge Neil Garnham Garnham said. The court heard that Carpuic was a middleman tasked with facilitating payment — which never came — and recruiting someone to film the fires.
The plot fits the description of Russian state-backed sabotage, Cmdr. Dominic Murphy has said previously. He oversaw the initial investigation into the fires as head of the counterterrorism team at the Metropolitan Police before retiring in March.
He said evidence gathered by police showed that El Money spoke Russian and is “likely to be in Russia.” El Money’s methods were “very similar” to those known to be used by Russian intelligence services acting in the U.K. Such plots, he said, often have “very senior sign-off.”
Western officials say Russia is carrying out a sabotage campaign against European countries that support Ukraine. The Associated Press has tracked at least 192 attacks across Europe since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that include arson and cyberattacks as well as attempted assassinations.
When asked by AP in June if Russia is waging a covert war against the West, President Vladimir Putin brushed off the allegations.
Addressing Lavrynovych in the dock, Garnham said he agreed to carry out this “mindless piece of arson for money.”
“You are not a man of great principle. And you were easily bought,” Garnham said. He said that Lavrynovych is a man of “significantly low-level intellectual functioning,” and was therefore vulnerable to manipulation.
He accepted the job from El Money as he had also accepted “other grubby little tasks,” Garnham said.
Lavrynovych’s defense lawyer James Scobie said his client was “low-hanging fruit” used by El Money to deliberately target the prime minister and was prime “fodder for this type of infiltration.” Lavrynovych, he said, had brought shame on his family in Ukraine where his father worked with the military before he died.
The U.K. Home Office called the fires an “abhorrent attack” and said those responsible have been brought to justice. It did not respond to requests for comment about whether the British government planned to attribute the fires to Russia.
Lavrynovych was tasked with setting and filming the fires over several days in May 2025, according to evidence presented during his six-week trial. El Money recruited him online and sent detailed instructions, including the locations of the targets and how to mix flammable liquids from a hardware store.
The attacks did not cause injuries or major damage, but the prime minister’s sister-in-law, Judith Alexander, said she was left “struggling to breathe” after smoke filled her house in the third attack. She and her family were staying at the residence, which had been Starmer’s home before he became prime minister.
Messages recovered from Lavrynovych’s phone showed he discussed other vandalism he conducted for money, such as painting the windshields of cars black and putting up anti-Islam posters in Muslim areas of London.
He was not charged with that activity and it will be investigated, said Cmdr. Helen Flanagan, the current head of the Metropolitan Police’s counterterrorism team.
Counterterrorism police are dealing with more and more crimes, such as arson, which are being directed by anonymous people online promising payment, Flanagan said in a statement after the sentencing.
People who consider carrying out such activity should “think again,” because they could, like Lavrynovych, not get paid and go to jail instead, she said.
This photo combination of undated photos originally issued on April 29, 2025 by the Metropolitan Police shows Roman Lavrynovych, left, and Stanislav Carpiuc. (Metropolitan Police /PA via AP)
FORMOSO DO ARAGUAIA, Brazil (AP) — On a vast island in northern Brazil, an unusual debate about cattle and conservation is taking place.
Federal authorities last year ordered the removal of herds from protected Indigenous territory on the world's largest river island, Bananal Island. They argued the land was reserved for Indigenous peoples and conservation, and that the herds kept there by outside ranchers were illegal and contributed to habitat degradation.
To comply with the order, wranglers drove more than 100,000 cattle from the island when the rivers were low enough. But the removal has created new problems for Indigenous residents who had come to rely on money they earned leasing the land to ranchers.
The events underscore the challenge of balancing conservation, Indigenous interests and pressure from agribusiness, one of Brazil’s most powerful sectors. Brazil is the world’s largest beef producer, accounting for about 20% of global output and 6% of the country's gross domestic product.
Protecting Indigenous territories is widely seen as one of the most effective ways to curb deforestation in the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest and a key regulator of the global climate.
Brazil has made progress in reducing deforestation, but cattle ranching remains the main driver of it. Ranchers clear large swaths of forest so cattle can graze.
Tocantins state, home to Bananal Island, was among the states with Brazil's highest deforestation levels in 2025, according to MapBiomas, a nonprofit group tracking land use. Biodiversity is threatened as trees that absorb pollution are replaced by cattle that emit methane, a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming.
Brazilian law prohibits commercial activity on Indigenous lands. Cattle raising is allowed only for subsistence.
In practice, however, parts of Bananal Island were leased for decades. Under the informal system, ranchers paid village leaders a monthly fee of about 15 reais ($3) per head — far below the roughly 60 reais ($12) charged outside the island.
When the over 100,000 head of cattle were on the island, monthly revenue from leasing could reach 1.5 million reais ($290,000). Payments went to Indigenous chiefs, who passed part of the money to local associations.
“Cattle, over the years, have covered many of our community’s expenses,” said Cleiton Javae, chief of Txuiri village, citing schools, medicine, transport and traditional festivities.
But some residents say the money was concentrated among leaders and did not benefit the roughly 5,000 people in more than 40 villages.
“The law requires consultation and shared benefits,” said Leandro Milhomem, the chief of IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, in Tocantins. “Instead, some chiefs had significant resources while, in the same community, children died of malnutrition.”
Indigenous residents told the AP that wranglers also fenced off parts of the island and restricted access to farming areas that were meant for communal use.
Leaders who supported agreements with ranchers say such incidents were isolated and argue that raising cattle has been blamed for broader policy failures. Still, they acknowledge the system spiraled out of control, with ranchers bringing far more cattle than declared.
“The situation became unsustainable, and removing the cattle was the only alternative,” Javae said.
Indigenous residents say they own the remaining cattle on the island. But in March, environmental authorities seized 550 head of cattle and issued 21 citations, according to documents reviewed by The Associated Press. One cited a wrangler who said an Indigenous chief told him to falsely claim the herd was Indigenous‑owned to avoid sanctions.
Bananal Island lies between the Javae and Araguaia rivers at the junction of Brazil's top soy and cattle-producing states of Tocantins, Mato Grosso and Para.
When European colonizers reached the area in the late 18th century, they found the island inhabited by Indigenous peoples and covered with wild banana groves that inspired its name: Ilha do Bananal in Portuguese.
The region remained largely overlooked by settlers and the Brazilian government until the 1950s, when it was designated a protected area. At the same time, authorities began promoting non-Indigenous cattle ranching through leasing agreements with local communities.
Ranching offered villages a potential source of income but also fueled inequality and environmental problems.
Cattle ranching caused soil acidification and fueled wildfires, according to Brazil’s environmental agency, with investigations finding blazes often started near grazing areas. Ranchers have long used fire to manage land and renew pasture.
Three Indigenous groups live on the island: the Javae, Karaja and Ava-Canoeiro. The Javae have long maintained close ties with non-Indigenous ranchers. Many outsiders married Indigenous women and settled on the island. Through these relationships, ranchers gained access to develop economic activity inside legally protected territory.
The island's traditional cultures and non-Indigenous practices can be seen in the contrasts. Brick houses stand alongside thatched structures of wood and straw. In Txuiri village, children play with bows and arrows near a Protestant church. In another village, Boa Esperanca, Lucirene Javae, the eldest in the community, on a recent day prepared to roast turtles for lunch while watching cooking videos on YouTube.
The Javae are working with The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to land conservation, to develop a land management plan on the island that outlines their social, environmental and economic needs, along with pathways to meet them.
In May, Javae leaders and other Indigenous representatives visited the Macuxi people in Roraima, a state in the northern Amazon seen as a model for using agriculture to generate income and strengthen land rights.
In the 1980s, Macuxi leaders began raising cattle to help reclaim territory under pressure from farmers, miners and land grabbers. The land was only officially demarcated as Indigenous territory in 2005.
Today, the Macuxi collectively own about 45,000 head of cattle, said Ivo Aureliano Macuxi, an Indigenous rights advocate and member of the Indigenous Council of Roraima.
The Macuxi and Bananal Island peoples' experiences reflect a broader debate by Indigenous groups in Brazil to balance economic activity with protection of their rights and the environment, he said.
That debate also has advanced in mining. In February, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino ruled that the Cinta Larga people, who live in a region spanning the Amazonian states of Mato Grosso and Rondonia, have the right to mine within their own territory.
Aureliano said Indigenous communities need legal frameworks that both support their territories and respect the diversity of Brazil’s 391 Indigenous peoples.
“You can’t apply a single model as a template for other Indigenous lands,” Aureliano said, but instead must tailor plans to “each region, each territory, each people.”
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Cowboy Leandro Rui Araujo, known as Bodo, rides a motorcycle with sons Davi and Guido in Boa Esperanca village of the Javae Indigenous group on Bananal Island in Formoso do Araguaia, Tocantins state, Brazil, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Lucirene Javae, the eldest Indigenous woman in Boa Esperanca community, stands outside her house on Bananal Island in Formoso do Araguaia, Tocantins state, Brazil, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
A Javae Indigenous woman roasts turtles for lunch in Boa Esperanca community on Bananal Island in Formoso do Araguaia, Tocantins state, Brazil, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
A woman from the Java Indigenous group fishes in the Javae River on Bananal Island in Formoso do Araguaia, Tocantins state, Brazil, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Horses graze in the Txuiri village of the Javae Indigenous group on Bananal Island in Formoso do Araguaia, Tocantins state, Brazil, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Cousins Gustavo Javae, left, and Gael Javae, from the Javae Indigenous group, play with a bow and arrow at the Txuiri village on Bananal Island in Formoso do Araguaia, Tocantins state, Brazil, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Javae Indigenous youths collect papayas from a tree at the Txuiri village on Bananal Island in Formoso do Araguaia, Tocantins state, Brazil, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Deforestation, center, from an Indigenous cattle pasture is visible in the Txuiri village of the Javae Indigenous group on Bananal Island in Formoso do Araguaia, Tocantins state, Brazil, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Indigenous chief Cleiton Javae walks in his community at the Txuiri village on Bananal Island in Formoso do Araguaia, Tocantins state, Brazil, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
