PROTESTERS called out: “It’s a beautiful day to fight against the war”, sitting on the balcony of a sanctioned oligarch’s house.

In the very early hours of Monday, a group calling themselves the London Makhnovists occupied a mansion home of Oleg Deripaska at 5 Belgrave Square.

They said they were guided by the spirit Ukrainian revolutionary Nestor Makhno. And the four protesters added: “We won’t leave until [Vladimir] Putin ends the war. We’re demanding this property belong to Ukrainian refugees. Their houses have been destroyed and this guy [Deripaska] supported the war.”

A stand-off with the police lasted all day as officers tried to remove them from the property and the world’s media watched on.

Mr Deripaska, founder of metals and hydropower company EN+, was added to the UK’s sanctions list last week as a result of his alleged close relationship with the Kremlin.

Some of the protesters are linked to the homeless shelter in a squat, called the Autonomous Winter Shelter. They spent the day in the house and sent our reporter a video showing vast, empty rooms filled with art and sculptures. The seven-bedroom house is worth £50million, and is complete with a cinema room, grand piano, wine cellar, Turkish steam bath and gym.

One of the group said: “There was nothing in the fridge. Whoever occupies the premises isn’t living in it – there’s no hot water, heating, nothing is on. It’s deserted. We think they use it as a property investment, they didn’t buy it as a home. This is what oligarchs do, they dump their money into the London property market.”

They added: “We think there’s lots of room to house refugees. There is so much stuff a normal human being would never need.”

The square was cordoned off with more than 50 officers in attendance at one point and at least 10 police vehicles.

In the early afternoon, dozens of officers in riot gear broke into the house while the four protesters laughed from the balcony and asked to be brought pizza. “Pizza not war” chanting broke out among supporters at the end of the street.

The police response has been called heavy-handed with more than 10 officers for everyone unarmed protester.

After hours of negotiations, with police going up and down in a JCB cherry-picker to talk with them, they were arrested on Monday evening.

They were taken to Walworth police station and held overnight, but all eight of the protesters were later released, without charge, under investigation.