I was reading some of the Twitter comments regarding the apparently pro-Ukrainian yellow and blue jumpsuits worn be the three Russian cosmonauts who just arrived at the ISS.
Russians board International Space Station in Ukrainian colours
Some are implying that it must have taken months to fabricate these garments, pouring scorn on those who suggest they were worn as a snub to Putin’s war. Is this correct? I’m sure they are made to exacting standards but they are just jumpsuits, aren’t they?
They’re basically just clothing. At most, they might be made of flame-retardant material, and there are probably standards for things like number and location of pockets, but given the right fabric and a pattern, my mom could make one of those in an afternoon.
They’re also only “Ukrainian colors” in the same sense that pink, white, and blue are “American colors”. Russian makes the same sort of distinction between those two shades of blue as Americans make between pink and red: Yes, you can view pink as just being “light red”, but almost nobody in the US does think of it in that way, and likewise for those two blues in Russia.
I think they were also wearing Ukrainian flag patches. There is only one explanation besides outright defiance of the Putin regime and that was made by a cosmonaut with his tongue firmly planted in cheek:
“It became our turn to pick a color. But in fact, we had accumulated a lot of yellow material so we needed to use it. So that’s why we had to wear yellow,”
This was reported in the Guardian story I read this morning, but it is apparently incorrect. They also reported that they were wearing blue jumpsuits during the docking. Not sure what to think, now.
It is clear from the photo that they have Russian flag patches.
They are shown before take off wearing white and blue space suits, presumably airtight, with a metal collar to attach to a helmet. Would they have changed out of those between takeoff and docking, or are those the blue suits being referred to? The Guardian video didn’t have any footage between leaving the Cosmodrome and opening the hatch on the ISS.
I’m becoming less and less confident this was a deliberate political statement. Apparently, all three cosmonauts graduated from the same university. This is the logo:
