Russian cosmonauts wear Ukrainian colors in arrival at International Space Station

Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station dressed in yellow flight suits with blue accents, the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

The men were the first new arrivals on the space station since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month.

Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev, and Sergey Korsakov of the Russian space corporation Roscosmos successfully launched their Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan on Friday at 8.55 p.m. local time. They arrived at the station in less than three hours, joining two Russians, four Americans, and a German on the orbiting outpost.

Artemyev was wearing a blue flight suit in video taken as the spacecraft prepared to dock with the space station. It was unclear what message, if any, the yellow uniforms they changed into were supposed to send.

When the cosmonauts were able to communicate with their families on Earth, Artemyev was asked about the suits. He stated that each crew chose their own.

“That’s just Dmitry Rogozin,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said of Rogozin’s remarks. Every now and then, he spouts off. But, at the end of the day, he has collaborated with us.

“The others who work in Russia’s civilian space programme are professionals.” They don’t miss a beat when it comes to us, the American astronauts, and the American mission control. Despite this, we can collaborate with our Russian friends and colleagues in space.”

Nasa astronaut Mark Vande Hei, who broke the US single spaceflight record of 340 days on Tuesday, is scheduled to leave the space station with two Russians aboard a Soyuz capsule on March 30 for a landing in Kazakhstan.

“It was our turn to choose a colour. But, in fact, we had a lot of yellow material that needed to be used,” he explained. “That’s why we had to dress in yellow.”

Since the beginning of the war, many people have used the Ukrainian flag and its colours to show their support for the country.

As a result of the war, spacecraft launches have been cancelled and contracts have been broken. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, has warned that the US will have to fly into space on “broomsticks” after Russia said it would stop supplying rocket engines to US companies.