Ukrainian admitted guilt in mosque vandalism in London. He was recruited by a Russian

21-year-old Ukrainian Illia Bilyk on Thursday pleaded guilty in a London court to five counts of vandalism against mosques and buildings of Muslim organizations in London. Bilyk might have been recruited remotely via Telegram by the same person, linked to Russian authorities, or the same organization, that ordered the arsons of property connected to former Prime Minister Keir Starmer, writes BBC.

On January 23, 2025, Bilyk defaced the building of the Islamic Association in Stratford, Al-Bir Mosque, and Jamia Mosque in Leyton, East London, with offensive graffiti. Two days later, he vandalized Noor-ul-Islam Primary School and the Islamic Sharia Council with graffiti.

The BBC learned that Bilyk told police he received the instruction to spray graffiti from a Russian-speaking user on Telegram. Bilyk stated that the Russian-speaking person indicated where he needed to apply the graffiti and paid him after the task was completed.

In June, a London court sentenced 22-year-old Ukrainian citizen Roman Lavrynovych and 27-year-old Romanian citizen of Ukrainian origin Stanislav Karpyuk to prison for arson attacks on homes and a car linked to then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

An investigation conducted by the BBC and the organization Hope not Hate revealed that Russia was behind the arsons.

According to the investigation's findings, Lavrynovych and Karpyuk were recruited for money via Telegram by a user with the initials EL. According to the participants of the investigation, this could have been Russian diplomat Yevgeny Lukshin, who remotely organized a large-scale campaign of sabotage and provocations through social networks and Telegram.

According to the investigation's findings, EL instructed Lavrynovych to spray Islamophobic graffiti on mosque walls; he was also actively involved in administering the Telegram channel of the fake ultraright group Direct Action UK, created and managed by employees of Russian special services to provoke acts of vandalism on British streets.

In January 2025, when Bilyk applied graffiti in the locations assigned to him, photographs of them were published on the Direct Action Telegram channel, and EL, a few hours later, posted a request in a Ukrainian job search group in Britain to send photos of these locations.

Bilyk's sentence will be handed down on October 19 at Stratford Magistrates' Court.

Chief Superintendent Rona Hunt of the London Police stated: "We recognize that these incidents caused significant distress to Muslim communities in East London last year and continue to cause concern."

"Hate crimes against Muslims and Islamophobia are absolutely unacceptable in London. We are determined to combat hate crimes while supporting and reassuring our communities," Rona Hunt added.

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