June 29, 2026
St. Petersburg Governor's Press Service
The State Hermitage Museum has canceled all of its archaeological expeditions in annexed Crimea after Kremlin-backed authorities declared a state of emergency due to ongoing Ukrainian attacks and an acute fuel shortage.
“The expeditions are being postponed until the situation improves,” Alexander Butyagin, head of the museum’s archaeology department, told the state-run news agency TASS on Monday. “It’s too difficult to organize normal operations right now.”
According to media outlets in St. Petersburg, Butyagin was supposed to lead an expedition in Crimea last month. However, the expedition has since been moved to the southern Krasnodar region.
