Police have evicted squatters who had occupied a London mansion belonging to the family of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who was placed on Britain's sanctions list last week in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Wearing riot gear, officers entered the multimillion-pound mansion in Belgrave Square, a home to numerous foreign embassies that is located in an upmarket area of the British capital.
"You occupy Ukraine, we occupy you," the squatters, who described themselves as anarchists, said in a statement. "By occupying this mansion, we want to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine, but also the people of Russia who never agreed to this madness."
The squatters had gathered on the balcony at the front of the property, where they unfurled a Ukrainian flag and placed a banner reading 'This property has been liberated'.
A lengthy standoff ended on Monday night.
Britain froze the assets of Deripaska last Thursday, one of a number of Russian oligarchs targeted in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
A spokeswoman for Deripaska said the house belonged to members of his family rather than to him personally.
"We are appalled at the negligence of Britain’s justice system shown by Boris Johnson's cabinet in introducing the sanctions and colluding with the sort of people who raid private property," she said.
"It's truly a disgrace that this is happening in a country that is supposed to respect private property and the rule of law."
Deripaska, who has stakes in energy company En+ Group, theowner of one of the world's major aluminium producers, is worth an estimated £2 billion ($NZ3.85 billion) and has a multimillion-pound property portfolio in Britain, according to the British government.
London High Court documents from 2007 identified Deripaska as the beneficial owner of the Belgrave Square mansion. A judge in a court case the year before said the property and another house he owned outside the capital were then worth about £40 million.
Britain has sanctioned about 20 Russian oligarchs, including Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich, freezing their properties across London and banning them from coming to Britain.
"Squatting in residential buildings is illegal but we are working to identify the appropriate use for seized properties while owners are subject to sanctions," a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters. "We certainly don't think people should break the law."
Abramovich jet in Turkey
Meanwhile, a jet linked to Abramovich arrived in Istanbul from Israel on Monday, shortly after he was seen in Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.
The Russian oligarch, who also holds Israeli and Portuguese citizenship, has denied having close ties to President Vladimir Putin.
A photograph obtained by Reuters showed Abramovich, the owner of Britain's Chelsea football club, sitting in Tel Aviv airport's VIP lounge with a face mask pulled down over his chin. Reuters could not verify whether he boarded the flight.
A person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters the plane used by Abramovich flew into Ben Gurion late on Sunday from Moscow. Flight-tracking website FLIGHTRADAR24 said the aircraft, which has the tail number LX-RAY and is a large Gulfstream business jet, on Monday landed in Istanbul after leaving Israel.
It was not scheduled to fly on from Istanbul after landing and remained there, according to a source citing flight plans. The plane had also been in Turkey last week, according to tracking data.
Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, is the site of the head office of AB Grup Holding, a company run by Muhsin Bayrak, who has publicly expressed interest in buying Premier League club Chelsea from Abramovich.
