Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station celebrated a significant development in the war in Ukraine on Monday.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos posted photographs of cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev, and Sergei Korsakov holding up the flags of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic and Donetsk People’s Republic nearly 255 miles above the Earth. The photographs were accompanied by a caption that celebrated the “liberation” of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk province by Russian forces.
“Liberation Day of the Luhansk People’s Republic! We celebrate both on Earth and in space,” Roscosmos said on Telegram. “The entire territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic has been liberated. Russian and Luhansk forces have established full control over [Lysychansk] — the last major city in the LPR!”
“This is a long-awaited day that residents of the occupied areas of the Luhansk region have been waiting for eight years. We are confident that July 3, 2022 will forever go down in the history of the Republic,” the space agency added.
NASA ADMINISTRATOR: RUSSIA ‘NOT PULLING OUT’ OF INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION
On Sunday, Russia declared victory in Ukraine’s Luhansk province in the Donbas, the focus of Russian aggression since the Kremlin’s failed attempt to capture the capital city of Kyiv.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the takeover was complete when Russian forces and Ukrainian separatists established “full control” over the city of Lysychansk and nearby settlements.
Ukrainian forces retreated from the region in order to avoid being encircled and to shore up their front lines in other parts of the country, according to Ukrainian officials.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The cosmonauts were photographed in white, red, and blue spacesuits, the colors of the Russian flag.
In March, shortly after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, a controversy erupted after the same cosmonauts boarded the space station in yellow and blue suits that many interpreted as a sign of support for Ukraine, because the suits echoed the colors of the Ukrainian flag. A U.S. astronaut aboard the space station as well as the head of Roscosmos later claimed that the cosmonauts wore the yellow and blue spacesuits in honor of the colors of their alma mater, Bauman Moscow State Technical University.
