Ukrainian Becomes 3rd Man to be Charged with Fires Linked to UK PM

FILE PHOTO: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer looks on during a reception, following the UK-EU summit, in London, Britain, May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer looks on during a reception, following the UK-EU summit, in London, Britain, May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool/File Photo
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Ukrainian Becomes 3rd Man to be Charged with Fires Linked to UK PM

FILE PHOTO: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer looks on during a reception, following the UK-EU summit, in London, Britain, May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer looks on during a reception, following the UK-EU summit, in London, Britain, May 19, 2025. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/Pool/File Photo

British police on Wednesday charged a third man, a Ukrainian national, with arson offences over a series of fires at properties and a car linked to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Over five days earlier this month, police were called to fires at a house in north London owned by Starmer, another at a property nearby where he used to live, and to a blaze involving a car that also used to belong to the British leader.

Petro Pochynok, 34, was charged with conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life, and will appear in a London court later on Wednesday, Reuters quoted police as saying in a statement.

Two men, Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 21, and Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, who was born in Ukraine, have both been remanded in police custody after being charged over the last few days in connection with the fires.

None of the suspects have been charged under terrorism laws or the new National Security Act which aims to target hostile state activity.

Starmer, who has lived at his official 10 Downing Street residence in central London since becoming prime minister last July, has called the incidents "an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for".



Israel Tells Worried Members of Iran’s Security Services to Contact Mossad

 Huge smoke rises up from an oil facility facility after it appeared to have been hit by an Israeli strike Saturday, in southern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 15, 2025. (AP)
Huge smoke rises up from an oil facility facility after it appeared to have been hit by an Israeli strike Saturday, in southern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 15, 2025. (AP)
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Israel Tells Worried Members of Iran’s Security Services to Contact Mossad

 Huge smoke rises up from an oil facility facility after it appeared to have been hit by an Israeli strike Saturday, in southern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 15, 2025. (AP)
Huge smoke rises up from an oil facility facility after it appeared to have been hit by an Israeli strike Saturday, in southern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, June 15, 2025. (AP)

The Israeli military is urging members of the Iranian security services to contact Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, claiming they had been receiving messages from officials worried about Iran’s “uncertain future.”

There was no immediate way to independently verify the claim.

In a post on the social platform X in Farsi, the Israeli military provided a website and urged users to employ a virtual private network before attempting contact.

“Even those who identify themselves as members of the regime’s security institutions express their fear, despair, and anger at what is happening in Iran and ask us to contact Israeli authorities - so that Iran does not suffer the same fate as Lebanon and Gaza,” the message added.

The message did not elaborate. However, it comes as Iran is in a frenzy over spies, prompting warnings to officials to abandon certain devices, apps and web services.

The internet was down in Iran late Wednesday afternoon. Authorities offered no immediate explanation.