A 21-year-old Ukrainian national, Illia Bilyk, has formally pleaded guilty to orchestrating a series of religiously and racially aggravated vandalism attacks targeting multiple Islamic institutions in east London, in a case that ties directly to a wider Russian state-backed sabotage campaign that also planned arson attacks against UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Appearing before Thames Magistrates’ Court, Bilyk accepted responsibility for all five counts of criminal damage lodged against him. The attacks were carried out across two days in January 2025: on January 23, he defaced the Stratford Islamic Association, Al-Birr Mosque, and Leyton Jamia Masjid with abusive anti-Muslim graffiti; two days later, he targeted Noor Ul Islam Primary School, a community education facility for young Muslim children, and the Islamic Shariah Council.
Court documents and joint investigative reporting from the BBC and anti-extremism group Hope not Hate reveal that Bilyk was recruited and directed by actors connected to Russian intelligence operations. According to statements Bilyk provided to Metropolitan Police, he was approached on the widely used messaging platform Telegram by a Russian-speaking contact who outlined the targets and offered him cash payment for completing the attacks. This is not an isolated incident, but part of a coordinated destabilization effort run by Russian operatives on UK soil.
In an earlier related case from June 2026, two other Ukrainian citizens, Roman Lavrynovych and Stanislav Carpiuc, were sentenced to prison for plotting arson attacks against a private residence and vehicle linked to Starmer. Investigations have confirmed that the same Russian network that directed the arson plot also organized a wave of Islamophobic vandalism across London, including the five attacks Bilyk admitted to carrying out. Lavrynovych himself confessed to defacing an Islamic center in south London with anti-Muslim graffiti, alongside his role in the Starmer arson plot. Like Bilyk, he was recruited via Telegram by an anonymous handler identified only by the initials EL, who paid him for completing the ordered attacks.
Further investigative work has confirmed EL is a Russian intelligence operative who ran a broad campaign of provocation and sabotage remotely through social media and Telegram. The operative built and managed a fake British far-right organization called Direct Action UK, which was created solely to carry out disruptive, divisive attacks on UK streets that would stoke social tension—including the mosque graffiti attacks Bilyk carried out. After Bilyk completed the east London attacks in January 2025, photos of his vandalism were shared publicly in the official Direct Action UK Telegram group to amplify the division the campaign aimed to create. Just hours after Bilyk carried out two of the attacks, EL posted an ad in a employment group for Ukrainian refugees and migrants living in the UK offering cash payments for photos of local buildings, matching the pattern of recruiting vulnerable people to carry out attacks.
Joint reporting has also identified Russian diplomat Evgeny Lyukshin as a member of the Direct Action UK chat group. Lyukshin has documented training in information warfare from senior Russian intelligence officials, and his personal details match the profile of the handler EL. When contacted by the BBC for comment on his alleged role, Lyukshin did not respond.
Bilyk is scheduled to receive his formal sentencing on October 19 at Stratford Magistrates’ Court. In an official statement following the guilty plea, Chief Superintendent Rhona Hunt of the Metropolitan Police addressed the harm caused by the attacks. “We recognise that these incidents caused significant distress within Muslim communities across east London last year and that they continue to cause concern,” Hunt said. “Anti-Muslim hate crime and Islamophobia have absolutely no place in London. We are committed to tackling hate crime while supporting and reassuring our communities.”