Ukrainian authorities are seeking the arrest of Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Zubritsky, who launched to the ISS alongside an American astronaut on Tuesday.
It was reported yesterday that back in mid-March, a Ukrainian court sentenced the Ukrainian-born Zubritsky to fifteen years in prison in absentia on charges of draft dodging.
The Ukrainian newspaper Dumska reports that the Ukrainian Territorial Recruitment Center (TCC) is now seeking the arrest of Zubritsky.
Zubritsky, 32, was born in Ukraine and was serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Crimea in 2014 when Russia annexed the region. He chose to remain in Crimea and later accepted Russian citizenship, eventually entering Russia’s space training program.
On Tuesday, Zubritsky, fellow Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov, and American astronaut Jonny Kim launched aboard the Russian Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They subsequently docked with the ISS.
Ukraine’s decision to prosecute Zubritsky just weeks before his joint flight with an American—on charges related to draft evasion, despite him not having held Ukrainian citizenship for 11 years—may be an attempt by Kiev to undermine the U.S.-Russian cooperation aboard the ISS.
The partnership between American and Russian space agencies on the ISS has been one of the few remaining areas of collaboration untouched by the breakdown in U.S.-Russia relations since 2022, despite repeated calls to end it.
Despite a media campaign by Ukraine and some of its staunchest supporters in the Western press, there appears to be no impact on the current mission, which is scheduled to last eight months. So far, there has been no official pushback from the U.S. government or coverage in mainstream American media.