Russia Sends Ukrainian Treason Convict to Orbit

On April 8, 2025, a new crew was sent to the International Space Station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The crew consists of American Johnny Kim and two Russian citizens, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, who was convicted of treason in Ukraine.

The System investigative project by the Current Time TV channel (created by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty with the participation of Voice of America) and the Russian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty learned details about Alexey Zubritsky.

Alexey Zubritsky was born in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine and chose a military career.

A lieutenant in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, he served as a pilot in the aviation unit of one of the military units stationed in Crimea.

When Russia launched its illegal annexation of Crimea, the command sent Zubritsky to another unit in mainland Ukraine and set a deadline for his arrival by May 12, 2014.

By the set deadline, Zubritsky did not report for duty and did not inform the command of his whereabouts, although he was obligated to do so and could have done so.

The 32-year-old Zubritsky became the first astronaut in history to be sentenced for treason. The Vinnytsia City Court issued the verdict in absentia on March 11, 2025.

According to the court’s ruling, Alexey Zubritsky, “being a citizen of Ukraine, knowing the above circumstances with certainty, from March 22, 2014, to May 13, 2014, while in Sevastopol, acting deliberately and for selfish motives, switched sides to the enemy, thus committing treason.”

The court found it proven that the defendant had served in the Russian military for over 10 years, including during the full-scale war.

According to the biography on the website of the Russian Cosmonaut Training Center, between 2014 and 2018, Zubritsky served in military units in occupied Crimea and southern Russia – specifically, the 38th and 31st Fighter Aviation Regiments and the 960th Assault Aviation Regiment. In 2018, Zubritsky was assigned to the cosmonaut corps. At the end of 2024, according to information on the Roscosmos website, he was undergoing training at the European Space Agency’s site in Cologne.

Russia also deploys Ukrainian traitors to war. In 2022, during the war in Ukraine, a Russian army officer who had betrayed his oath and sided with the invaders during Russia’s capture of Ukrainian Crimea in 2014 was eliminated.