MOSCOW, January 12. /TASS/. The Warsaw District Court has extended the arrest of Russian archaeologist Alexander Butyagin until March 4, according to RMF FM radio station.

It said that Butyagin's lawyer Adam Domansky is going to apply for a change in the preventive measure. The Warsaw District Court will consider the case of the extradition of the Russian archaeologist to Ukraine on Thursday, January 15.

An employee of the Hermitage Museum, Butyagin was detained by Polish special services on his way from the Netherlands to the Balkans on December 4. According to Polish media, he refused to testify at the prosecutor's office. The Warsaw court arrested the archaeologist for 40 days. According to the Polish prosecutor's office, Butyagin could face up to 10 years in prison in Ukraine.

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 charged a Russian archaeologist conducting excavations in Crimea in absentia. The name was not mentioned in official reports, but according to several Ukrainian media, it was Butyagin, who led one of the archaeological expeditions to Kerch.