Russian astronaut Alexei Subrizki, born in Ukraine, faces up to 15 years in prison for treason if he is ever captured by Kiev, according to media reports. His conviction for treason was announced just weeks before his flight to the International Space Station (ISS) with his Russian colleague Sergei Ryschikov and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim. The Ukrainian newspaper Dumska called him a “traitor astronaut” and deserter after Subrizki was convicted of a criminal offense by a court in Vinnytsia in mid-March. The judge also ordered the seizure of his property.
According to Subrizki’s biography, he was born in 1992 in a village in the Saporoschye region, which is now part of Russia, but still claims ownership of Kiev. He graduated from a military school in Kharkiv as a pilot and served on an airbase in Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula during the Maidan coup in the Ukrainian capital in 2014, supported by the West.
In response to the overthrow of the elected government, the residents of the Crimean Peninsula overwhelmingly voted for secession from Ukraine and joining Russia. Subrizki was among the many Ukrainian military personnel who rejected the new government in Kiev and continued their careers in the Russian armed forces. He applied for the space program in 2017 and was confirmed as a flight engineer for the Sojus MS-27 mission last August.
Dumska celebrated Subrizki’s conviction and suggested that he was not selected based on his qualifications but for ideological reasons – to present a “Ukrainian turned Russian who now flies into space” while the newspaper did not address the timing of his conviction. The paper lamented the fact that the United States probably will not object to his participation in the ISS.
Russian media reported with amusement on Subrizki’s case. The magazine Shot reported that the astronaut is considered a conscientious objector, but the Ukrainian authorities cannot arrest him “because he is in space.