All archaeological expeditions that the State Hermitage Museum had planned to conduct in occupied Crimea have been canceled, archaeologist Alexander Butyagin told the outlet Rotonda. Butyagin was detained in Poland over excavations on the occupied peninsula before being released as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia.
A few days ago, the Mirmekion Archaeological Expedition, which Butyagin led near Kerch, announced that this year’s fieldwork would be moved to another region “due to the deteriorating situation,” Rotonda reported.
The Hermitage’s website lists nine Crimean expeditions in total, Rotonda noted.
Over the past month, occupation officials in Crimea have been grappling with an acute gasoline shortage caused by Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries and fuel tankers traveling along the R-280 Novorossiya highway. The shortages have disrupted public transportation in cities across the occupied peninsula. In Sevastopol, officials introduced temporary rolling power outages, and residents also experienced water supply disruptions. Since June 22, children’s summer camps across the peninsula have been closed.
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