Astronauts return to Earth on Russian Soyuz spaceship

Expedition 42 Cosmonaut Elena Serova (L) of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos); Alexander Samokutyaev of Roscosmos (C); and NASA Astronaut Barry Wilmore (R) of NASA sit in chairs outside the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft just minutes after they landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, March 12, 2015. NASA Astronaut Wilmore, Russian Cosmonauts Samokutyaev and Serova are returning after almost six months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 41 and 42 crews. - AFP PHOTO

Yelena Serova -- the first female Russian cosmonaut to have spent time on the ISS -- landed along with Alexander Samokutyaev and Barry Wilmore in snowy Kazakhstan just after sunrise.

The International Space Station is one of the few areas of cooperation between Russia and the United States that has not been hit by the crisis in Ukraine.