A 21-year-old Ukrainian national has admitted to a series of religiously motivated vandalism attacks on mosques across east London, in a case that forms part of a broader Russian state operation also responsible for arson attacks targeting former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Illia Bilyk entered guilty pleas at Thames Magistrates' Court to five counts of racially and religiously aggravated criminal damage. According to reporting on the charges, police had filed the offences after investigating graffiti sprayed on five buildings in January 2025, including the Al-Birr Mosque and Noor Ul Islam Primary School in Leyton.
On 23 January 2025, Bilyk sprayed abusive graffiti on three separate venues: the Stratford Islamic Association, Al-Birr Mosque, and Leyton Jamia Masjid. Two days later, on 25 January, he targeted Noor Ul Islam Primary School and the Islamic Shariah Council. The BBC established that Bilyk told investigators he had been recruited to carry out the vandalism by a Russian-speaking individual who contacted him via the messaging platform Telegram. The recruiter provided instructions on which locations to target and compensated Bilyk financially after each attack.
The vandalism campaign forms part of a larger Russian intelligence operation. In June 2026, two other Ukrainian nationals—Roman Lavrynovych and Stanislav Carpiuc—were sentenced to prison for conspiracy to commit arson targeting property and a vehicle connected to the prime minister. An investigation by the BBC and the anti-extremism organisation Hope not Hate revealed that Russian state actors had orchestrated both the arson attacks and the Islamophobic vandalism spree across London, including the east London incidents to which Bilyk has now confessed.
Lavrynovych, who personally ignited fires at locations linked to Sir Keir, also admitted to spraying Islamophobic graffiti on an Islamic building in south London. Like Bilyk, he was recruited through Telegram and offered payment by an anonymous handler identified by the initials EL. This operative was a Russian intelligence official who managed a coordinated campaign of sabotage and provocation across the United Kingdom, operating remotely through social media and encrypted messaging platforms.
The Russian operative EL held a central role in establishing and running Direct Action UK, a fabricated far-right organisation created by Russian intelligence services to incite acts of vandalism and extremism on British streets. The fake group served as a vehicle for orchestrating the graffiti attacks on mosques and other religiously significant buildings.
Following Bilyk's vandalism in east London in January 2025, photographs documenting the attacks were circulated within a Direct Action Telegram group. In the hours immediately after two of the incidents, EL posted messages in a jobs-focused Telegram group targeting Ukrainian workers, offering payment in exchange for photographs of buildings in the targeted areas. This pattern of activity demonstrates the systematic nature of the Russian operation, which recruited vulnerable individuals from the Ukrainian diaspora and compensated them for carrying out acts designed to inflame communal tensions.
The BBC investigation identified a Russian diplomat, Evgeny Lyukshin, as a participant in the Direct Action UK chat group. According to the investigation, Lyukshin had received training in information warfare from senior Russian intelligence officials, and his profile details aligned with those of the handler EL. When contacted by the BBC, Lyukshin declined to respond to inquiries.
What happens next?
Bilyk is scheduled for sentencing on 19 October at Stratford Magistrates' Court. According to court records, he had been charged on 16 September 2026, one day before his initial appearance on 17 September.
Police response and community impact
Chief Superintendent Rhona Hunt of the Metropolitan Police stated:
We recognise that these incidents caused significant distress within Muslim communities across east London last year and that they continue to cause concern. 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.
Key Facts
- Bilyk pleaded guilty to five counts of racially and religiously aggravated criminal damage targeting five separate locations in east London between 23 and 25 January 2025
- The vandalism campaign was part of a Russian state operation that also included arson attacks on properties connected to Sir Keir Starmer, for which two Ukrainian nationals were jailed in June 2026
- A Russian operative identified as EL recruited Bilyk via Telegram and paid him to carry out the attacks, operating as part of the fake far-right group Direct Action UK
- Russian diplomat Evgeny Lyukshin was identified as a participant in the Direct Action UK network and is believed to have coordinated aspects of the broader sabotage campaign
