Recently, a video showing Russia covering the flags of the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom while leaving the Indian flag intact has surfaced on the internet.?
The video showed workers at the Baikonur launch pad covering up the flags of USA, Japan and UK on the OneWeb rocket which is scheduled to be launched on Friday.
The main reason is pretty obvious - Russia has been sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan for its invasion of Ukraine. India had abstained from voting.?
The video has gone viral and has been re-shared on many social media platforms, including Reddit.? ?
"The launchers at Baikonur decided that without the flags of some countries, our rocket would look more beautiful," Russian space agency ROSCOSMOS' chief Dmitry Rogozin tweeted.
The launchers at the Baikonur launch pad were seen pasting white vinyl on the flags on the Soyuz rocket, covering them completely.
The Soyuz rocket is carrying 36 satellites from various countries which will provide broadband Internet connectivity under the OneWeb project. The project's endgame is to launch 648 satellites into orbit, and 428 of them have already been successfully launched using the Soyuz vehicle. The project is owned by Bharti Airtel group and the UK government.
Despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the agency had earlier said it will go ahead with the launch, and that they are installing the rocket at the launchpad for the scheduled launch on 5th March.
However, now the agency has changed its decision and decided not to launch the rocket.?
ROSCOSMOS has refused to launch the rocket carrying the satellites due to the sanctions imposed on Russia by the UK. According to reports, the agency wants the UK government to sell its stake in the OneWeb project and that OneWeb gives the guarantee that the satellites won¡¯t be used for military purposes.
Along with that, new sanctions by countries around the globe have been imposed on Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine. The US, the EU, the UK, and Canada restricted Russia's access to use SWIFT, a high-security network that connects 11,000 financial institutions in 200 countries. Germany also suspended certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.?
The European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, and Taiwan all issued new injunctions against Moscow, condemning the aggressive military attack(s) that was carried out in Ukraine in the last 24 hours.
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