Elham Asaad Buaras
A 21-year-old Ukrainian man has pleaded guilty to carrying out a series of Islamophobic graffiti attacks on mosques, a Muslim school and Muslim organisations in east London, after telling police he was recruited through Telegram by a Russian-speaking individual who directed him to the targets and paid him.
Illia Bilyk pleaded guilty at Thames Magistrates’ Court on September 17 to five counts of racially and religiously aggravated criminal damage over attacks in Leyton and Stratford in January 2025.
Three sites were targeted in Stratford and Leyton on January 23, 2025: Stratford Islamic Association, Al-Birr Mosque and Leyton Jamia Masjid. Two days later, Noor Ul Islam Primary School and the Islamic Shariah Council were also targeted in the area.
The Metropolitan Police said offensive graffiti was sprayed on all five buildings. Bilyk, of Field Road, Forest Gate, was subsequently charged following an investigation by detectives from the Met’s North East Command Unit.
Chief Superintendent Rhona Hunt, who leads policing in the area, said the attacks had caused “significant distress” among Muslim communities across east London.
“Anti-Muslim hate crime and Islamophobia have absolutely no place in London,” she said. “We are committed to tackling hate crime while supporting and reassuring our communities.”
Bilyk’s guilty plea has since been linked by the BBC to a wider investigation into a Russian-linked network accused of using Telegram to recruit people in Britain to carry out vandalism and other acts of sabotage.
According to the BBC, Bilyk told police that a Russian-speaking individual approached him through Telegram, supplied the locations he was expected to target and paid him after the graffiti had been carried out.
The BBC and Hope not Hate have linked the attacks to Direct Action UK, an online group that presented itself as a British far-right organisation but which investigators say was operated by Russian actors.
Images of graffiti attributed to Bilyk were subsequently shared in a Direct Action UK Telegram group, according to the BBC investigation.
The wider network had previously come under scrutiny over a series of attacks against properties connected to former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Two Ukrainian men, Roman Lavrynovych and Stanislav Carpiuc, were jailed in June after being convicted of conspiring to carry out arson attacks targeting a property and a car connected to Starmer.
Lavrynovych had also admitted spraying Islamophobic graffiti on an Islamic building in south London after being recruited through Telegram.
The wider network was also reported to have recruited operatives to carry out vandalism against Islamic sites in London. Another person, who has not been publicly named or charged, was identified filming himself spray-painting an Islamic primary school in east London.
The report said the network operated through a fake far-right group known as Direct Action, which offered payments for acts of vandalism and sought to present the activity as the work of a domestic British extremist movement.
Anti-Muslim hate campaigners had also raised concerns about the network before Bilyk’s guilty plea.
Tell MAMA reported in June that Direct Action had offered cryptocurrency in exchange for vandalising mosques and had promoted anti-Muslim, anti-migrant and far-right material online. The organisation said it had monitored the channel and raised concerns about its activities.
An investigation into the network identified Russian diplomat Evgeny Lyukshin as a member of the Direct Action UK Telegram group. The investigation also found reported similarities between Lyukshin’s details and those associated with an anonymous account identified as “EL”, which had been used to direct some recruits. Lyukshin did not respond to questions about the allegations.
The Metropolitan Police had initially announced Bilyk’s arrest and charges on September 16, more than 20 months after the attacks.
Local coverage at the time reported concern among Muslim community representatives and politicians. Stratford Islamic Association said following the attack that those responsible had “shamed only themselves” and that the incident would not intimidate the community.
Bilyk is due to be sentenced at Stratford Magistrates’ Court on October 19.
