Russian cosmonauts wear Ukraine colours to International Space Station

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Three Russian cosmonauts have risked the wrath of Vladimir Putin by arriving at the International Spaced Station wearing the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov, of Russian space corporation Roscosmos, were the new arrivals since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine last month.

This came as Russian president Putin staged a rally in Moscow to mark a chilling anniversary on the illegal annexation of Crimea and praising the Russian invasion of Ukraine and assuring those in attendance of Russia's victory.

People in the crowd had been instructed to attend the rally by their employers, while others had offered them the day off if they went along, though no-one who said that they had been told to attend would go on camera, according to BBC.

The trio blasted off from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday (March 18) at 8.55pm local time and docked three hours later in space.

They were welcomed by four Americans, two Russians and a German crewmate already on board.

When the team settled in and managed to make connections to families on Earth, Oleg Artemyev was asked about the bright-coloured suits.

He said every crew chooses its own flight suits, so that they are not all the same.

He also added: "It became our turn to pick a colour. But, in fact, we had accumulated a lot of yellow material so we needed to use it.

"So that’s why we had to wear yellow."

Scott Kelly, former NASA astronaut, said: "Three Russian cosmonauts who just docked with the ISS arrive in Ukrainian yellow!

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  • BBC
  • Nasa
  • Vladimir Putin
  • Space
  • Russia

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