The Tamesis
Ukraine has asked Poland to extradite an archaeologist who was detained in Warsaw earlier this month on suspicion of illegal excavations in Russian-occupied Crimea, Polish media reported.
Following Oleksandr Butyagin’s arrest in Poland on December 4, the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office received an extradition request from the Kiev authorities.
Butyakin, 52, is an employee of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, where he leads the museum’s archaeological department, which specializes in the northern Black Sea region, including Crimea. Polish authorities arrested Butyakin in Warsaw while he was on a speaking tour across Europe with a planned final destination in Belgrade. A Polish court detained him until January 13 while extradition proceedings take place.
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In November, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine accused Butyakin of illegally excavating the ancient city of Mirmykion in the Kerch region of Crimea from 2014 to 2019 without the permission of Ukrainian authorities, allegedly causing significant damage to the site. Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, said in a statement that Butyakin’s archaeological team was clearing “the so-called cultural layer on the Ukrainian peninsula to a depth of nearly two meters.” euro news. Ukrainian authorities estimate the cost of repairs will exceed 200 million hryvnia (approximately $4.75 million).
If a Polish court approves Butyakin’s extradition to Ukraine and is convicted, he faces one to 10 years in prison.
Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Butyakin’s detention “legally arbitrary,” while his colleagues at the Russian Academy of Sciences condemned the detention as “absurd in its motives.” The State Hermitage Museum said in a statement that Butyakin complied with international standards during the expedition.
Butyakin has overseen excavations at Mirmykion since 1999, according to a 2024 statement from Butyakin to Russian state media. Mirmekion was an ancient Greek colony founded in the early 6th century BC. Located near Kerch in present-day Crimea, Mirmekion is one of many heritage sites mired in ongoing legal and ethical controversy over Russia’s 2014 annexation and subsequent invasion of Ukraine.
In May this year, the EU sanctioned a Russian museum for its activities in Crimea for the first time. The “Tauric Chersonese” state museum reserve on the outskirts of Sevastopol in Crimea and its director Elena Morozova were sanctioned for “undermining or threatening Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.”
The historic sanctions came after a group of art experts called on the International Council of Museums (ICOM), an NGO that sets industry standards for participating museums, to expel Russia for violating the organization’s ethical code.
Last year, Ukraine accused Russia of converting Tauric Chersonese, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2013, into a “historic archaeological park” and called on the United Nations to intervene. The site is an ancient city founded by the Greeks on the northern shore of the Black Sea in the 5th century BC. Ukraine and its allies do not recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea, a key entry point into the eastern Mediterranean, and have worked to restore Crimea since its annexation.
In November, Amsterdam’s historical museum Allard Pierson Museum caused some minor controversy when it returned 400 artifacts to the Kiev museum, including precious Sythian gold. Before the annexation of Crimea, the collection was on loan to Amsterdam from four Crimean museums, and both Ukraine and Crimea demanded the return of the artifacts after the incident.
“This is an exceptional case where cultural heritage has become a victim of geopolitical developments,” Amsterdam museum director Els van der Plas said in a statement.
