Russia's space agency Roscosmos has shared images of cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergei Korsakov aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as they celebrate Moscow's conquest of the entire Lugansk oblast in eastern Ukraine. The three men, smiling, held the flags of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic.

"This is a long-awaited day that residents of the occupied areas of the Lugansk region have been waiting for eight years. We are confident that July 3, 2022 will forever end in the history of the Republic. Citizens of the Allied People's Republic of Donetsk wait", Roscosmos announced on social media. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promises that Kiev will retake the territories. "If the commanders of our army withdraw people from certain points at the front, where the enemy has the greatest advantage in terms of firepower, and this also applies to Lysychansk, it means only one thing: that we will return thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increased supply of modern weapons".