Hay said cosmonauts Oleg Artemiev, Denis Matveev and Sergei Korsakov were “blinded” after several observers speculated that their yellow and blue space uniforms were in favor of Ukraine, according to CNN. However, all three Russian cosmonauts were graduates of Bauman Moscow State Technical University, which has yellow and blue emblems on it. The NASA astronaut told a news conference on April 5, “All three happened to be related to the same university and I think they were a bit blind to it.” Haye even said that he did not try to avoid discussing the Russia-Ukraine war with his colleagues in the ISS.
The NASA astronaut added: “It was not a big discussion, but I asked them how they were feeling and sometimes I asked sharp questions, but our focus was on our mission together.”
Intensity of the Russia-Ukraine war in the ISS?
It is worth noting here that Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a war in Ukraine on February 24 and the geopolitical tensions of his steps have echoed in the International Space Station (ISS). As the United States, the West and many other nations united against Russia, NASA astronaut Hay landed in Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft on March 30, after a record 355 days in space. Arrived with cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov. Hei’s return was highly anticipated and ended up attracting unprecedented levels of attention from around the world. In particular, the head of the Russian space agency Dmitry Rogozin fueled more tensions by publishing many fiery messages against the United States. In a video riot, Rogozin also took part in a Twitter altercation with retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who held the record for the longest time until Hei broke it. In addition, the head of the Russian space agency retweeted a partially animated video that indicated the threat that Russian astronauts would abandon Hay in space. Noting Rogozin’s actions, Hay said he had heard of the tweets, adding, “I never took these tweets as something I should take seriously.” The NASA astronaut even said that he saw the tweets regarding a “different audience” from him.
