Men acting for Wagner Group convicted of anti-Ukraine arson

A group of men have been convicted for their roles in an arson attack ordered by the Wagner Group on an east London warehouse linked to Ukraine, in the first case to result in convictions of Britons acting for the banned Russian terrorist group.

- Jamie Grierson

About £1m of damage was caused by the fire at an industrial unit in Leyton, east London, last March, which took eight fire crews, composed of 60 firefighters, to get under control, the Old Bailey was told.

Nii Mensah, 23, livestreamed on his phone as he and Jakeem Rose, 23, set fire to the building while Ugnius Asmena, 20, waited in a car, jurors heard.

After an Old Bailey trial, Mensah, Rose and Asmena were found guilty of aggravated arson with intent to endanger life.

The attack was orchestrated by Dylan Earl, 20, and the Gatwick airport cleaner Jake Reeves, 23, who had targeted the warehouse because it was being used to supply humanitarian aid and Starlink satellite equipment to Ukraine.

They went on to plot more arson attacks against a restaurant and wine shop in Mayfair and the kidnap of the owner, Evgeny Chichvarkin, a wealthy Russian dissident. The plots were ultimately unsuccessful.