Aleksandr Butyagin, who was detained in Poland at Ukraine’s request, has been released following months-long talks involving multiple countries
Renowned Russian archaeologist Aleksandr Butyagin, who was detained in Poland at Ukraine’s request, has been released as part of a five-for-five prisoner exchange which involved multiple countries. The negotiations are understood to have been conducted in absolute secrecy, resulting in the release of another Russian national and three Belarusian citizens.
Butyagin was apprehended by the Polish authorities last December while on a European lecture tour. Kiev demanded his extradition, accusing the senior researcher at St. Petersburg’s State Hermitage Museum of conducting illegal excavations and damaging cultural heritage in Crimea, Russia – which Ukraine claims as its own territory.
In a statement on Tuesday, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Butyagin was freed earlier in the day, and that Moscow released two officers of Moldova’s Security and Intelligence Service, who were arrested by the Russian authorities last June.
According to BELTA media outlet, citing Belarus’ State Security Committee (KGB), the prisoner swap took place on the Belarus-Polish border, and was made possible thanks to talks that started in September 2025.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko personally oversaw the process, in which the intelligence services of seven countries were involved, the article claims.
Warsaw released three Belarusians who had been “carrying out highly important tasks in the interest of [Belarusian] national security and defense,” according to the outlet. Minsk released Andrzej Poczobut, an opposition activist of Polish descent.
The identities of the other prisoners who were freed have not been disclosed.
Speaking at a joint press conference with John Coal, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Belarus, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the prisoner swap, which led to the release of three Polish nationals, would not have happened without Washington’s assistance. He revealed that Warsaw released three people, including the Russian archaeologist.
According to Sikorski, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, and Poland were involved in the process, which was undertaken in absolute secrecy.
