At no point during the trial of three young men charged with conducting an arson campaign against the Prime Minister was the identity of the plot's mysterious mastermind revealed.

Referred to only as 'El Money', the Russian-speaking man operated in the shadows, sharing details of potential targets using encrypted messaging services and transferring cash via untraceable crypto-currency accounts.

But yesterday it was claimed the man behind the plot was a young Russian diplomat called Evgeny 'EL' Lyukshin, a senior official's son.

Schooled in information warfare by spies and propagandists, the 23-year-old, identified by the BBC, is said to be close to the highest levels of power in Moscow.

Lyukshin has even been pictured with Russia's deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko.

His father is believed to be a senior Russian diplomat who served at the embassy in Denmark, with access to sensitive Nato files.

The BBC alleges the arson attack was 'just one part of an extensive campaign of sabotage, provocation and lies leading all the way to the Russian state'.

It added: 'Russian operatives ran their sabotage and provocation campaign remotely through social media and the messaging app Telegram, we found, creating fake online far-Right and Muslim groups, which were used to organise acts of vandalism in the UK and stir up division and fear.

'Accounts based in Russia posted lies about the motive for the arson attacks targeting [Sir Keir] Starmer, which were spread by figures such as far-Right anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson.'

Lyukshin did not respond to the BBC's questions about his role in the Starmer plot. But when it challenged him over his involvement, within hours the propaganda channel El Money had been using disappeared from the internet.

Meanwhile, the Russian embassy said yesterday: 'We reject any attempt to associate Russia or its foreign ministry with unlawful activities'. 

It added that Russia posed 'no threat to the United Kingdom or its people and harbours no aggressive intentions towards Britain'.

The BBC's report was backed up by the Financial Times, which yesterday reported that El Money was located in Russia and closely aligned with NoName057(16), a pro-Kremlin 'hacktivist' group the US has called a Russian 'state-sanctioned project'.

Apart from organising the firebombing of Sir Keir's home in Islington – occupied at the time by his sister-in-law – El Money attempted to exacerbate social tensions in Britain by recruiting people to engage in painting anti-Islamic graffiti at mosques and other sites across London.

The individuals hired to carry out such crimes tended to be gullible individuals purely motivated by a lust for cash. Which was certainly the case with the two young men convicted yesterday at the Old Bailey of being behind the series of arson attacks targeting the Prime Minister.

Roman Lavrynovych, the ringleader, was living in London having fled Ukraine with his family. Looking for work, he came across the individual nicknamed El Money online.

But rather than run a mile when the unidentified stranger offered to pay him £3,000 in crypto-currency to set fire to a car and two properties in north London, 22-year-old Lavrynovych readily agreed, roping in Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, to help.

A third man, 35-year-old Ukrainian Petro Pochynok, was charged alongside the two men. But yesterday he was cleared of conspiring to damage property by fire. 

Eager but amateur, within hours of the final attack last May, Lavrynovych – a builder and wannabe model – was arrested.

The young man was quickly linked to the crime scenes by his bus journeys, CCTV footage and mobile phone tracking data. 

He was caught on camera at B&Q buying the white spirit used to start the fire, and traces of the liquid were found on his Fila trainers. Photos on his phone recorded reconnaissance trips, along with video and images of the actual blazes.

On top of which were hundreds of incriminating messages to his co-accused and to El Money – an account that was said in court to be operated by more than one person. Lavrynovych would subsequently insist he had no idea of the significance of the targets – claiming to not even know who Sir Keir was.

That the duo may indeed have been truly ignorant of the significance of what they had done was backed up by a message sent by El Money to Lavrynovych after the final blaze.

'Look, you attacked the home of a very high-ranking person in Britain,' he wrote. 'I'll send you money, you need to leave the city.

'If the police detain you, secretly write the word 'geranium' and I'll send a lawyer to you, I'll give you money for a week and a new phone. We won't be in touch for a week.' 

But Lavrynovych didn't take his advice and within hours was arrested after police broke down the door of the flat he shared with his grandmother.

Carpiuc, meanwhile, who trained as a masseur, was stopped at Luton Airport where he was due to board a flight home to his native Romania. While it is easy to deride the role of these 'disposable' agents, the reality is deadly serious. 

Last year, in a separate incident, three men were convicted of an arson attack that caused £1million of damage to a warehouse in east London housing supplies for Ukraine – a job carried out on behalf of the Russian mercenaries Wagner.

The ensuing investigations are expensive and time-consuming, at the same time allowing foreign powers to sow chaos.

Apart from carrying out the arson attacks, Lavrynovych was paid to put up posters. While no mention was made during his trial of the entity behind them, the BBC revealed yesterday they promoted a purported far-Right group called Direct Action UK.

'The group sought to appear as an organic British creation,' it said. 'But we found that Direct Action was created online by Russian operatives to cause division among ordinary people in the UK.

'Messages sent in the group bore a Moscow timestamp, used Cyrillic letters [Russian script], and placed pound signs at the end of numbers, rather than at the start – as in Russian.'

The group's activities were particularly controversial because Direct Action first appeared online in autumn 2024 following the Southport riots. It used images of that disorder to promote civil strife.

The BBC added: 'Its social media channels, which the posters were advertising, featured videos branding Sir Keir a traitor, promoting hatred of Muslims and offering money for violence and arson, including attacks on mosques and police. Direct Action also lionised Tommy Robinson.'

One Telegram channel shared bomb-making, knife-attack manuals and offered payment for people to 'burn the police'.

The Molfar Intelligence Institute, a Ukraine-based organisation focused on open-source intelligence, confirms the attacks on Sir Keir's property bear all the hallmarks of Russian involvement at the highest level – including a campaign of 'disinformation'.

After the arson incidents, unfounded rumours quickly spread across the internet claiming what had happened was in fact a personal dispute.

It was falsely said that Lavrynovych and Carpiuc – who both did part-time modelling – were in fact rent boys with whom the Prime Minister had fallen out.

The spurious suggestion underlying it was that Sir Keir is gay and his marriage is a sham. Mr Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, claimed on X that Sir Keir had been involved with Ukrainian male sex workers and posted a fake image of the Prime Minister with the suspects.

'An attack on the property of the sitting Prime Minister of the UK is not merely petty sabotage – it is a brazen geopolitical act and the crossing of a serious red line,' said a Molfar analyst, speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail on condition of anonymity.

'No low-level handler or mid-ranking Russian intelligence officer would take responsibility for selecting such a target without a direct order or at least a clear 'green light' from the political leadership in Moscow. This is a deliberate escalation that is sanctioned at the highest level.'

He added: 'Russian handlers primarily view such perpetrators as disposable assets, or, to put it bluntly, cannon fodder. The main advantage of using such individuals lies in creating 'plausible deniability'. Finding local perpetrators for 'dirty work' is harder in wealthy Western countries, which is why Russian recruiters are heavily shifting to migrant and refugee chat groups.

'It is a very cheap and safe method for Moscow – if the mercenary is caught, they know nothing about their true employers, and the Russian officer remains safe.'

He also revealed El Money's use of the supposed codeword 'geranium' was nothing more than 'trolling'. 'Geranium is the Russian name for the Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones used by Russia to terrorise Ukraine,' he said.

Of course, that's no excuse for those taking part. Their actions put innocent lives at risk in a country that had offered them sanctuary. Raised in Ivano-Frankivsk, a city in western Ukraine, Lavrynovych enjoyed a middle-class upbringing. 

His father bought and sold second-hand cars and his mother worked for the local council. When war with Russia broke out in February 2022, Lavrynovych and his younger siblings moved to join his maternal grandmother, who had settled in London with her husband decades earlier.

When his sister was unable to get a school place in London, she and their mother returned to Ukraine. Lavrynovych remained, lodging in his granny's rented three-bed flat on the first floor of a four-storey Victorian semi in Sydenham, south east London.

According to his father, who stayed in Ukraine, he was happy in the UK and had a girlfriend, a Ukrainian living in Surrey Quays.

He insisted his son was proud of his heritage – he has an uncle fighting on the frontline against the Russians – while also respecting the country he had settled in.

And Lavrynovych seemed to be settling in well. In March last year, he registered a construction company in his name with Companies House. And on May 11, in the midst of his firebombing spree, he praised his mother on Facebook: 'I wish you infinite love, harmony and inspiration for every day.'

But in reality his life was not running as smoothly as suggested. Online, Lavyrnovych was touting his services as a model.

One picture showed him lying shirtless on his bed. 'I am a beginner model, it will be interesting to take any work at a rate of 20 per hour, but I take the first ones without a fee to fill the experience and promote you and myself, I am 20 years old,' the blurb read.

And that wasn't the only 'side hustle' the young Ukrainian was involved in. Since 2022, Lavrynovych had been active on Telegram, the social media and messaging site, posting requests for cash-in-hand jobs, mainly in the construction or hotel business.

It was through a Telegram group called London Jobs that he – in September 2024 – came across El Money, with whom he would go on to share more than 300 messages.

One offered money to put up posters of an anti-Muslim nature – presumably the Direct Action one referred to above.

In a conversation with an Instagram user named 'Klyment', Lavrynovych asked him to help, saying he had made £102 in a day, at £2 a flyer. He later told him he could earn £500 by painting a car's windscreen black or £2,000 for setting a car on fire. 

Klyment, whose identity is unknown, was interested – but immediately smelt a rat. 'As they f*****g say the cheese is free only in a mousetrap,' he messaged Lavrynovych. 'There must be a catch.'

Yet Lavrynovych was undeterred. In April last year, he agreed to help with more flyers and soon after was in conversation with Carpiuc about a 'job' involving a vehicle. Carpiuc was educated in Russia until the age of 11, when his family moved to Ukraine and then to Romania.

He had been living in the UK for nine years, settling with his father and brother in Romford, east London, where he had set up a painting and construction firm.

He had recently finished a two-year BA in business at Christchurch University, Canterbury. While in Ukraine, Carpiuc trained as a masseur. An Instagram account bearing his name advertises skills in 'Thai massage, cupping massage, honey massage'.

Again, like Lavrynovych, he harboured modelling ambitions, posting his particulars on an online casting platform. One photo shows him staring at the camera, his hair swept back. Another shows him bare-chested under a smart suit jacket.

Carpiuc and Pochynok, who once lived together, were identified through their phone contacts with Lavrynovych.

The jury was told that Pochynok – who, as we have seen, was found not guilty – had been recruited by Carpiuc to help Lavrynovych with the first fire, while Carpiuc's role was planning and receiving payment.

The first fire, in the early hours of May 8 last year, involved a Toyota Rav4 car which once belonged to the Prime Minister. Three nights later, a blaze was reported at a house nearby that was managed by a company of which Sir Keir had once been a director and shareholder.

Jurors were shown another video of a lit match being thrown on to an accelerant on the doorstep of the address. This was allegedly done by Lavrynovych.

A resident of the top-floor flat was woken by the smell of smoke about half-an-hour later and escaped to the roof to call the fire brigade.

And in the early hours of May 12 last year, a house on the same street as the Toyota was set alight – leaving the occupant, Sir Keir's asthmatic sister-in-law struggling to breathe. 

In a statement read to the court, Judith Alexander told how she heard bangs outside the house and saw an orange glow by the front door. As the property filled with smoke, she called 999 and put on Covid masks as she tried to calm down her 'really frightened' daughter.

Giving evidence through a translator in court, Lavrynovych denied he was a 'terrorist'. He admitted starting the fires but said he had only done so because he claimed El Money had threatened him and his family.

It was an argument that failed to win over the jury.

Following yesterday's convictions, former defence secretary Ben Wallace warned that Russia was conducting a 'very deliberate and definite escalation against the British state'. 

And Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: 'Good people across the political spectrum will welcome today's verdicts, condemn these appalling attacks which seem to have been sponsored by Russia and wish the PM and his family well. Whatever our political differences, no-one should face intimidation, threats or attacks because they hold public office.'

Sentencing will take place at a later date, with lengthy custodial sentences expected. To add further insult to injury, it emerged during the trial that El Money never paid for the crimes he commissioned.