Featured Image Credit: NASA
An astronaut who is ‘wanted’ by the authorities is currently hiding out in orbit on the International Space Station.
The man in question Alexey Zubritsky, a Ukrainian armed forces pilot who flew an attack aircraft for his country in the aviation unit of the 204th Sevastopol Brigade.
However, after he went missing from the front line when Vladimir Putin illegally took control of Crimea, Zubritsky joined Russian forces and he is now considered to be a Ukrainian deserter.
Last month, Zubritsky was sentenced to 15 years in prison, which he will have to serve if he ever returns to Ukraine.
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But that doesn’t look likely as the man is no longer even on the planet after he switched his training to become a cosmonaut.
On Tuesday (April 8), Zubritsky blasted off from the Russian launch facility in Kazakhstan towards the ISS on a Soyuz-2a rocket, where he is now in orbit with Russian commander Sergey Ryzhikov and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim.
The Ukrainian prosecutor said: “Having committed high treason and desertion, he joined the armed forces of the Russian Federation, where he is still serving, in particular, as a test cosmonaut, [and] flight engineer of the ISS-72/73 crew [currently in space].”
Zubritsky, along with Ryzhikov and Kim are expected to spend around eight months in space, with NASA saying that Kim will spend the time conducting scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to help prepare the crew for future space missions and provide benefits to people on Earth.
In a statement, the space agency wrote: “Throughout his eight-month stay aboard the orbital outpost, Kim will conduct scientific research in technology development, Earth science, biology, human research, and more.”
There are currently 10 people aboard the ISS including NASA astronauts Don Pettit, Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi and Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and Kirill Peskov.
The two stranded NASA astronauts who spent nearly 10 months stuck in space arrived back on Earth last month.
Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore embarked on what was meant to be an eight-day mission back in June 2024.
However, they encountered issues when their Boeing spacecraft, Starliner, suffered multiple faults.
After NASA deemed it too unsafe to make the return trip, Starliner landed back on Earth empty, while Williams and Wilmore waited to be picked up by a SpaceX vessel.
The pair finally splashed down back on Earth in March 2025.
