Poland has detained Alexander Butyagin, a well-known Russian scientist and high-ranking employee of the Hermitage Museum, whom Ukraine suspects of destroying and damaging the cultural heritage of the temporarily occupied Crimea. This was reported by RMF FM.
According to the information, he was detained by officers of the Internal Security Agency at a hotel in the center of Warsaw.
Ukraine is searching for the scientist for conducting illegal archaeological work in the temporarily occupied territory of the peninsula. The investigation established that after Russia’s occupation of Crimea, Alexander Butyagin, head of the Hermitage’s Myrmekian archaeological expedition, carried out excavations at a cultural heritage site in Kerch without any permission from the Ukrainian authorities.
Butyagin is suspected of destroying and damaging the cultural heritage of the temporarily occupied Crimea. The amount of damage caused is estimated at more than 200 million hryvnia.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Center emphasizes that all those involved in crimes against the cultural heritage of Crimea and cooperating with the occupying authorities will be held accountable!