Russian cosmonauts arrive at the station dressed in Ukrainian colors

Three Russian cosmonauts arrived today at the ISS (International Space Station), wearing yellow flight suits with blue accents, the colors of which looked to match the Ukrainian flag. But they did not officially say whether the dress was a tribute, a protest, or just a coincidence.

Oleg Atemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov were the first to reach the space station Since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine last month. (Watch the video below)

The flight was carried out without any problems and was connected to the International Space Station after about three hours of travel, after launch in Kazakhstan. The three Russians join cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov and astronauts from the United States (Raia Shari, Thomas Mashburn, Kayla Barrow and Mark Vande Hee) and Germany (Matthias Maurer).

At the age of thirty, Shkaplerov, Dubrov, and Vandy Heya are back on Earth. (To watch the full astronaut arrival broadcast, click here)

Despite severe international sanctions imposed on Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine, work on the International Space Station has not been affected. All space agencies that have specialists on the station at the moment – NASA, Roscosmos, ESA (European Space Agency) – It has confirmed that work at the site will continue as usual.

However, the ESA-Roscosmos partnership has been hit hard on other projects, such as the second part of the European mission to Mars, ExoMars, the launch of four missions that included the Galileo satellite constellation and the development of the Ariane 6 rocket – all pending.

Also at the European level, Germany announced that it had terminated the space science research partnership with Russia.

Russia threatens to leave an American astronaut in space

Last week, the head of the Russian Space Agency, Dmitry Rogozin, threatened to abandon the American cosmonaut. Mark Vandy is in space After the United States announced the imposition of sanctions on the country, According to information initially released by ABC TV.

President of the United States, Joe BidenIt announced at the end of February that it would do so Stop exporting high-tech materials To the Eastern European country, to influence the Russian aviation industry and space programme.

According to the presenter, he has published a video in Russian in which he threatens to leave Vande He in space and separate the Russian part of the International Space Station, a project that has been around for more than 20 years with the participation of the United States and Russia. Japan, Europe and Canada.

With 355 days aboard, Vande Hei is the astronaut who spent the most time at the station, which is 408 kilometers from Earth’s orbit. He is scheduled to return at the end of this month aboard a Russian spacecraft with two cosmonauts from the country.