Ukraine sailor who tried to sink Russian boss’s £5m luxury yacht has ‘no regrets and would do it again’

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A Ukrainian sailor who tried to sink his Russian boss's luxury yacht in Spain says he has "no regrets" and would "do it again".

He was arrested after attempting to flood the vessel, anchored in Pord Adriano in Majorca, days after the war broke out.

Lady Anastasia is a 156-foot-long boat with five cabins and is owned by Alexander Mijeev, a former head of the Russian Helicopter Corporation.

In 2016, he took over Rostec, a Russian state-owned weapons supplier.

The man, who has not been named, allegedly opened the ship’s valves causing it to partially sink, Spain’s Balearic Island newspaper Ultima Hora reported on Sunday.

He opened one valve in the engine room and a second where the crew lives and allegedly asked three other crew members, also Ukrainians, to abandon the ship.

He also turned off the fuel valves and switched off the electricity on the ship.

Later when the civil guards came to arrest him, he said: “The owner of this ship is a criminal who makes his living selling weapons and now they kill Ukrainians.”

He was arrested, appeared in court and later released by the judge, after saying he only meant to cause material harm to Mr Mijeev and that it was not personal.

"I don't regret anything I've done and I would do it again," he reportedly said upon his release.

Fighting continued in several cities across Ukraine on Monday as the Russian invasion entered day five.

Outgunned but determined Ukrainian troops have slowed Russia's advance and, for now, have held onto the capital and other key cities.

In the face of stiff resistance and devastating sanctions Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, ordered his nuclear forces to put on high alert, threatening to elevate the war to a terrifying new level.

Both sides were scheduled to meet at the Belarus border on Monday morning for initial peace talks, although there was little optimism of a breakthrough in either Moscow or Kyiv.