Ukrainian men deny plotting arson attacks at properties linked to British prime minister

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LONDON (AP) — Two Ukrainian men pleaded not guilty Friday to plotting arson attacks earlier this year at properties linked to U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Roman Lavrynovych, 21, and Petro Pochynok, 35, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life between April 1 and May 13.

They are accused along with another man, Ukraine-born Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, with setting fire to Starmer’s personal home, along with a property where he once lived and a car he had sold.

Carpiuc, 27, did not enter a plea during the hearing at London's Central Criminal Court.

Prosecutors said the case was not being treated as terrorism.

“Plainly they are coordinated and must have some motive or purpose behind them," Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said.

A tentative trial date was set for April 27.

No injuries were reported from the fires in north London, which occurred on three nights between May 8 and May 12.

Starmer and his family had moved out of his home after he was elected in July last year, and they live at the prime minister’s official Downing Street residence.

A Toyota RAV4 that Starmer once owned was set ablaze on May 8, just down the street from the house where he lived before he became prime minister. The door of an apartment building where he once lived was set on fire on May 11, and on May 12 the doorway of his home was charred after being set ablaze.

Starmer called the fires “an attack on all of us, on democracy and the values that we stand for.”