Overview
- Poland handed Alexander Butyagin to Russia in a prisoner exchange instead of extraditing him to Ukraine.
- A Warsaw court had approved his extradition after his December arrest in Poland.
- Officials and media described the deal as a five-for-five swap brokered by the United States at the Belarus–Poland border.
- He is now home in St. Petersburg and says he plans to return to occupied Crimea this summer to continue digs near Kerch.
- Ukraine says it will keep pursuing charges over alleged illegal excavations that it estimates caused nearly $5 million in cultural damage.