The State Hermitage Museum has decided to temporarily stop all archaeological expeditions in Crimea. Historian and archaeologist Alexander Butyagin, who heads an expedition in Kerch, told the outlet Rotonda.
According to Rotonda, organizers informed participants that the work would be moved to another region “due to the worsening situation.” Instead of excavations in Crimea, volunteers were invited to join digs in the Kuban area, which the notice said would be easier to reach.
According to Novaya Europe, at least two more Russian scientific expeditions working in the Leninsky district are also planning to cancel excavations in Crimea because of what was described as an unstable situation. The outlet says the likely reason is problems with electricity and gasoline supplies on the annexed peninsula.
The Myrmekion archaeological expedition, led by Butyagin, had been working in Kerch since 1999. It continued excavations after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
Because Russian archaeologists continued working in Crimea, Ukrainian authorities opened criminal cases against them. Butyagin was among those named in those cases.
In December 2025, Butyagin was detained in Poland at Ukraine’s request. He spent more than five months in pretrial detention and was returned to Russia in late April 2026 as part of a large exchange involving Poland, Russia, Belarus and other countries. After that, he resumed his work at the Hermitage and said he intended to return to Crimea for excavations.