<\/p>\n
\n\tUkraine has requested the extradition from Poland of an archaeologist who was detained in Warsaw earlier this month on suspicion of conducting illegal excavations in Russian-occupied Crimea, according to the Polish media.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Warsaw District Prosecutor\u2019s Office received the extradition request from Kyiv authorities for Oleksandr Butyagin, following his apprehension in Poland on December 4.<\/p>\n
\n\tButyagin, 52, is an employee of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, where he leads the archaeology division specializing in the Northern Black Sea region, which encompasses Crimea. Polish authorities arrested Butyagin in Warsaw while on a lecture tour across Europe, with a planned final destination in Belgrade. A Polish court placed him in custody until January 13 while the extradition process unfolds.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn November, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General\u2019s Office charged Butyagin with illegal excavations of the ancient city of Myrmekion in the Kerch district of Crimea from 2014 to 2019 without permits from Ukrainian authorities, allegedly resulting in significant damage to the site. The Ukrainian security service SBU said in a statement that Butyagin\u2019s archaeological team was removing \u201cthe so-called cultural layer of the Ukrainian peninsula to a depth of almost two metres,\u201d per Euro News<\/em>. Ukrainian authorities estimated repairs will cost more than 200 million hryvnia (roughly $4.75 million). <\/p>\n \n\tIf the Polish court approves Butyagin\u2019s extradition to Ukraine and he is convicted, he faces a sentence of 1 to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n \n\tRussian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Butyagin\u2019s detention \u201clegal arbitrariness,\u201d while his colleagues from the Russian Academy of Sciences have decried the detention as \u201cabsurd in its motivations.\u201d The State Hermitage Museum said in a statement that Butyagin obeyed international standards during the expeditions.<\/p>\n \n\tButyagin has overseen excavations of Myrmekion, an ancient Greek colony established in the early 6th century BCE, since 1999, according to statements he made to Russian state media in 2024. Located near present-day Kerch in Crimea, Myrmekion is one among many heritage sites ensnared in the ongoing legal and ethical controversy over Russia\u2019s 2014 annexation and subsequent invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n \n\tIn May, the European Union sanctioned a Russian museum for the first time over its activities in Crimea. The \u201cTauric Chersonese\u201d State Museum-Preserve on the outskirts of Sevastopol,\u00a0Crimea, and its director, Elena Morozova, were sanctioned for \u201cundermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe historic sanction followed a demand from a group of art experts, who called on the International Council of Museums (ICOM), a nongovernmental organization that sets industry standards for participating museums, to eject Russia for violating the organization\u2019s code of ethics.<\/p>\n