Euroradio reported earlier that Oleg Novitsk had been aboard ISS since October 2012 together with Russian Yevgeniy Tarelkin and American Kevin Ford.

Oleg Novitski was born in the Belarusian town of Cherven but was trained as a military pilot in Russia and served in the Russian air force. He participated in Russia's campaign in Chechnya. In 2006 he graduated from Yury Gagarin Air Force Academy and was enrolled with the cosmonauts unit.

Journalist Yulia Novitskaya, the wife of the casmonaut, stressed in an interview with Radio Svaboda that Oleg Novitski always underlines that he has been and will also be a Belarusian:

"It's very pleasing that his space mission did not remain unnoticed in his Motherland. In fact, Oleg always stresses that he is a Belarusian by nationality and in his heart. Yet, he is the citizen of the Russian Federation, because he served in the Russian army and now lives on the territory of Russia."

Photo: Yulia and Oleg Novitski by kp.by

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