NASA astronaut said he is still 'dear friends' with Russian crew mates from the International Space Station, who had a 'variety of responses' to the war in Ukraine

• NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei said he and his Russian crew mates "continue to be very dear friends."
• The US astronaut said he was not phased by aggressive tweets from Russia's space chief.

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei said relations between US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts were cordial at the International Space Station (ISS), even as tensions continued to escalate between the two countries on Earth.

"About my relationship with my Russian crewmates, they were, are and will continue to be very dear friends of mine," Vande Hei said during a press conference in Texas on Tuesday.

"We supported each other throughout everything," he said. "And I never had any concerns about my ability to continue working with them."

Vande Hei broke the record for the longest US human spaceflight after a nearly yearlong stint at the ISS. The astronaut landed in Kazakhstan on March 30 along with two Russian cosmonauts on a Russian rocket.

Vande Hei told NBC News that he discussed Russia's attack on Ukraine with his Russian crew mates on board the ISS. He told CNN the conversations were "very brief" because their main focus "was on our mission together."

"There's varying levels of discomfort for them as well about the situation," he said, according to NBC News. "I did bring [the Ukraine situation] up with both my crewmates that I landed with and all I really feel comfortable saying is there was a variety of responses," he added.

Vande Hei's comments come after there was speculation that Russian cosmonauts who wore yellow and blue on a trip to the ISS were possibly expressing support for Ukraine. The astronaut dispelled the rumors, saying the crew mates were "blindsided" by the speculation.

Only a few days after Vande Hei returned to Earth, Russia's agency chief, Dmitry Rogozin, said that the nation was suspending its cooperation on the ISS and its partnership with NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency. Rogozin cited Western sanctions over Russia's attack on Ukraine.

Rogozin has repeatedly criticized the US on social media and even gotten into a series of spats with former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Twitter.

The Roscosmos chief also appeared to threaten to leave Vande Hei behind in a social media post in March. Though, Vande Hei said he "never perceived those tweets as anything to take seriously."

"I just didn't spend a lot of emotional energy paying attention to it," he told reporters at the press conference on Tuesday. "I heard about it. I kind of laughed it off and moved on."