MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. The risk of extradition of Russian archaeologist Alexander Butyagin, detained in Poland at the request of Kiev, to Ukraine is extremely high, Russia’s Charge d'Affaires in Poland Andrey Ordash said.

"The threat of extradition for Alexander, in our opinion, is very high. We must proceed from this," he said in an interview with Rossiya-1.

"The defense focuses precisely on this, that for Alexander, for his health, for his life, there is a real and great threat in the event of his extradition to Ukraine. Now it remains to be seen to what extent the Polish authorities will take this basic argument into account."

An employee of the Hermitage Museum, Butyagin was detained on his way from the Netherlands to the Balkans. According to media reports, he refused to testify at the prosecutor's office. The Warsaw court arrested him for 40 days, and a formal request from Kiev for his extradition is expected. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that representatives of the Russian embassy in Warsaw visited Butyagin and "are in contact with his lawyer, who is appealing the court's decision on temporary arrest."

In November 2024, Ukraine charges a Russian archaeologist conducting excavations in Crimea in absentia. The name was not mentioned in official reports, but according to several Ukrainian media reports, it was Butyagin, head of one of the archaeological expeditions in Kerch.