Russia dismisses controversy over flight suits colored like Ukrainian flag

March 19 (UPI) -- The Russian space agency Roscosmos fought back against reports that three Russian cosmonauts who wore yellow suits trimmed with blue while boarding the International Space Station on Friday did so in support of Ukraine.

Numerous western news outlets including The New York Times had noted that the flight suits bore a resemblance to the colors of Ukraine and that "it seemed difficult to believe it was happenstance."

"A funny invention of foreign bloggers and media. Sometimes yellow is just yellow," the space agency said in a post made to Telegram on Saturday.

Roscosmos said that the flight suits were made bearing the colors of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, from which all three cosmonauts graduated. The design for the flight suits were determined "long before" Russia decided to invade Ukraine, according to the agency.

The flight suits are sewn individually about six months before the flight itself by the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Roscosmos noted in another post that Oleg Artemyev, who is one of the three cosmonauts who traveled to the International Space Station, previously traveled to space in a yellow flight suit in 2014.

The agency later posted a message from Artemyev in which he expressed support for Russia and its decision to invade Ukraine.

"There is no need to look for secret signs and symbols in our uniform. Color is just color," he said. "Despite the fact that we are in space, we are together with our president and people!"