Poland transfers Russian archaeologist sought by Ukraine in Belarus exchange

Russia handed over two people in exchange, the country’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said.

The exchange took place Tuesday, April 28, according to RMF24 and Polsat News. With U.S. mediation, Warsaw received five people — three Polish citizens and two Moldovan nationals.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy John Cole thanked Poland, Moldova and Romania for their assistance.

“We thank Poland, Moldova and Romania for their invaluable support in these efforts, as well as [Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko’s] willingness to engage constructively with the United States,” the envoy said.

The FSB said Russia also secured the return of “the wife of a serviceman stationed in Transnistria.” In exchange, Moscow handed Poland “two career officers of Moldova’s special services,” without naming them.

The two Moldovan nationals had been detained in Russia in June 2025. The FSB alleged they entered the country using false documents and were tasked by Moldova’s Information and Security Service with activities “threatening Russia’s security.”

The exchange took place on the Belarus-Poland border under a “five-for-five” formula. Belarus also handed over journalist Andrzej Poczobut, who worked for Gazeta Wyborcza and was a member of the Union of Poles in Belarus. He was detained in March 2021 and sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of “inciting hatred and harming national security.”

The identities of the other individuals involved in the exchange have not been disclosed.

On Dec. 11, 2025, Polish authorities detained Alexander Butyagin, a researcher at the Hermitage Museum, in Warsaw. He was arrested by Poland’s Internal Security Agency at a hotel while traveling from the Netherlands to the Balkans.

Ukrainian prosecutors placed Butyagin on a wanted list in November 2025. He is accused of leading unauthorized archaeological excavations in Russian-occupied Crimea since 2014, including at the ancient city of Myrmekion in Kerch, causing partial destruction of a cultural heritage site. Damages are estimated at more than 200 million hryvnias.

Ukraine says his activities are part of the systematic looting of cultural heritage on the Crimean Peninsula.

In March 2026, a Warsaw district court approved Ukraine’s request to extradite Butyagin, though the defense was preparing an appeal.