Poland hands over Russian archaeologist detained for illegal Crimea excavations in prisoner swap

Polish authorities have released Russian archaeologist Alexander Butyagin as part of a US-brokered five-for-five prisoner exchange carried out today between Belarus and Poland, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski announced on Tuesday, with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) confirming the swap.

Butyagin, who heads the Northern Black Sea Archaeology sector at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, was detained in Poland in early December at Ukraine's request. Kyiv alleged he conducted unauthorised excavations at the ancient city of Myrmekion in Russian-annexed Crimea, causing damage to a cultural heritage site estimated at 200 million hryvnia (€4 million). A Warsaw court approved Ukraine's extradition request in March.

The FSB said Poland also handed over the wife of a Russian soldier. In return, Russia released two Moldovan intelligence officers. The identities of the other people exchanged have not been made public.

The most prominent figure released to the Polish side was Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut, a correspondent for the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and an activist with the Union of Poles in Belarus. Poczobut had been serving an eight-year sentence on charges of “undermining national security” and “ethnic hatred”, including for describing the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 as an act of aggression and writing in defence of Belarus's Polish minority. Amnesty International had recognised him as a prisoner of conscience, and in 2025, he received the Sakharov Prize. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk met him personally at the border.