U.S.-backed exchange with Belarus sees Poland return Russian archeologist instead of extraditing to Ukraine

U.S. Ambassador to Belarus John Coale said his team secured the release from Belarus of three Poles and two Moldovans. Among those freed was journalist Andrzej Poczobut, who spent five years in a Belarusian prison for criticizing Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

“This day would not have been possible without President Donald Trump and his decisions,” said Polish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Radosław Sikorski.

According to Sikorski, the exchange involved prisoners between Russia and Belarus on one side and Poland on the other.

Belarusian media described the swap as the “culmination of a complex and lengthy negotiation process between the KGB of Belarus and the Polish intelligence service,” conducted on direct orders from the Belarusian president. The talks reportedly began in September 2025 and involved seven countries.

In exchange, Poland transferred to Russia the Russian archaeologist Alexander Butyagin, who had been detained at Ukraine’s request. This occurred despite a Polish court previously approving his extradition to Ukraine, the Russian service of the BBC reported.

More about Butyagin

Poland’s Internal Security Agency detained Alexander Butyagin on December 4, 2025, while he was in Warsaw in transit from the Netherlands to the Balkans.

The Hermitage Museum website lists him as curator of archaeological collections from ancient settlements on the Bosporus and from kurgans on the Kerch Peninsula. In November 2024, the Prosecutor’s Office of Crimea and Sevastopol stated that he was conducting illegal archaeological excavations at a Ukrainian cultural heritage site in Crimea.

After Russia’s occupation of the peninsula, Butyagin, as head of the Hermitage’s “Myrmekion Archaeological Expedition,” carried out illegal excavations without permission from Ukrainian authorities at the cultural heritage site of the ancient city of Myrmekion in Kerch.

Ukrainian authorities charged the Russian national under Part 4 of Article 298 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General stated it will continue using all available mechanisms to hold Russian archaeologist Alexander Butyagin accountable for crimes against Ukraine.