In a message posted on the official Roscosmos Telegram channel, Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov are seen holding the flags of the two occupied territories, which are recognized as legitimate authorities only by Russia and Syria among UN member states. The cosmonauts also posed on the ISS with the flag of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, which is Russia’s other military target in the Donbass. Photo: Roscosmos The message accompanying the photos reads “Liberation Day of the Luhansk People’s Republic! We celebrate both on Earth and in space.” Roscosmos continued in the statement saying: “Roscosmos and our cosmonauts, working today on the International Space Station, join the congratulations of LPR head Leonid Pasechnik on the ‘new Great Victory Day.’ “It is a long-awaited day that the residents of the occupied areas of the Luhansk region have been waiting for eight years. We are sure that July 3, 2022 will forever remain in the history of democracy. Citizens of the allied Donetsk People’s Republic, wait!” Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST The three men were the first Russian crew to join the ISS since Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, and when they emerged from the Soyuz capsule in yellow suits, it was widely seen as a message of solidarity. However, the cosmonauts were coy about interpretations of their uniforms as tacit support for Ukraine. Asked about the costume at the time, Artemyev said that each crew chose their own. Korsakov, Artemyev and Matveyev were the first new faces in space since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine and emerged from the Soyuz capsule in February wearing yellow flight suits with blue stripes, widely interpreted as the colors of the Ukrainian flag that the season. Photo: AP “It was our turn to choose a color. But, in fact, we had accumulated a lot of yellow material, so we had to use it,” he said. “That’s why we had to wear yellow.” It is not clear how the flags of the two self-proclaimed republics got to the ISS. Also on the station working with the three Russian cosmonauts are American NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins, Robert Hines and Kjell N Lindgren, as well as Italian Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency. The Luhansk People’s Republic claims to control almost all of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, which borders Russia, after Ukrainian forces withdrew from the city of Luhansk on Sunday.
