Ukraine charges five Russian scientists with war crimes over excavations in annexed Crimea

Ukraine is investigating criminal cases against five Russian archaeologists over excavations in occupied Crimea, BBC Russia reported, citing prosecutorial and court documents obtained by the outlet.

The archaeologists have been designated as suspects in absentia in war crimes investigations. BBC names two of the suspects: the leaders of an excavation at the medieval site of Solkhat: Mark Kramarovsky, an 86-year-old Soviet and Russian scientist who founded the excavation in 1978 and has led it ever since, and Emil Seydaliev, a senior researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of Crimea.

The Ukrainian outlet Graty reported in August that Ukraine had formally designated Kramarovsky and Seydaliev as suspects. Ukrainian investigators said the scientists carried out illegal excavations at Solkhat, helped Russia appropriate the valuables found there in violation of international humanitarian law, and damaged the cultural layer beyond repair.

BBC does not name the other three scientists.

Since 2014, the excavation has received permits from Moscow, BBC said, and its finds have been handed over to the Crimean Tatar Museum of Cultural and Historical Heritage, established by Russian authorities. All the objects have been entered into Russia’s museum fund. Ukrainian prosecutors believe this has led to the “illegal appropriation of Ukrainian cultural heritage.”

Emil Seydaliev was born in Crimea, held Ukrainian citizenship and later obtained a Russian passport. He has worked in Crimea his entire life and called the criminal case against him and his colleagues a farce.

In December 2025, Polish security services detained Russian archaeologist Alexander Butyagin, who had conducted excavations in Crimea for many years. Since 1999, Butyagin had led the Myrmekion archaeological expedition, which studies the ancient site of Myrmekion in present-day Kerch. He said he kept working in Crimea after 2014 because he considered it necessary and right for the site. Ukrainian prosecutors believe he conducted illegal excavations in Crimea after 2014 and destroyed a cultural heritage site. Ukraine had sought Butyagin’s extradition, but in April 2026 Poland handed him over to Russia as part of an exchange.

Ukraine initially accused Butyagin of partially destroying a cultural heritage site and causing damage exceeding 201.6 million hryvnias ($4.8 million). After his release, Ukrainian authorities reclassified the case as a war crime: “looting of national treasures in occupied territory” by prior conspiracy. A court in Kyiv authorized an in-absentia investigation into a new case against him, allowing him to be tried in absentia. The previous charge did not allow for that, BBC said.