Russian astronauts, or cosmonauts, will stop using the European-made robotic arm on the International Space Station (ISS), as the European Space Agency (ESA) refused to go on cooperating with Russia on a Mars project, the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday.

Roscosmos and the ESA have a cooperation project called ExoMars that is intended to search for traces of life on the red planet. But ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said on Tuesday that the European side will officially terminate the cooperation.

Aschbacher said in a tweet that more information will be released on July 20 at a media briefing.

"In my turn, I instruct our ISS crew to stop using the European Robotic Arm," said Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin on Telegram.

The European Robotic Arm (ERA) was installed on the ISS in April, and is currently attached to the Russian part of the space station.

Rogozin said the ESA is "sabotaging" the cooperation and "thwarting the labor of thousands of scientists and engineers" in Russia and Europe.

He also said Roscosmos will try its best to bring back its Mars lander for the ExoMars mission from Italy.