Three Russian cosmonauts arrive at International Space Station

The Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster with Soyuz MS-21 space ship blasts off from Kazakhstan (Roscosmos Space Agency/AP)

Three Russian cosmonauts arrived at the International Space Station on Friday, the first new faces in space since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine.

Russian space corporation Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov blasted off successfully from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan in their Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft on Friday.