On Monday, July 4, "Roscosmos" published a photo of Russian cosmonauts who unfurled the "Donetsk Peopleʼs Republic" and "Luhansk Peopleʼs Republic" flags on the International Space Station. In this way, they celebrated the occupation of Luhansk oblast and the capture by Russian troops of Lysychansk, the last large city of the oblast.
"Celebrating on Earth and in space," Roscosmos wrote, commenting on the photo of cosmonauts Oleg Artemʼev, Denys Matveev, and Sergey Korsakov.
The spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleh Nikolenko in response called on the international space society to exclude Russia from all international space programs.
"Russian cosmonauts hang a flag on the ISS under which Russian troops are killing women and children in Donbas and turning whole Ukrainian cities to ashes. Russia exports its barbarism even to outer space — to the zone of peace. It should be excluded from all international space programs," he wrote on Twitter.
Russians were also condemned by American astronauts. "Russia is now officially using the ISS to promote their illegal and immoral war in Ukraine, where they are killing civilians every day. We can no longer ignore this,” Terry Werts wrote on Twitter.