1 March 2022
The world’s biggest aircraft, the Antonov AN-225, was badly damaged – possibly destroyed – in an attack by Russian forces at the Antonov airfield in Gostomel near Kyiv, Ukraine.
The six-engine AN-225, known as ‘Mriya’ (‘Dream’), was at the airfield for routine maintenance and had one engine removed at the time of the attack so could not be flown to safety.
Ukroboonprom, a Ukraine military manufacturing company which includes Antonov, confirmed the attack.
“The occupiers destroyed the airplane, but they won’t be able to destroy our common dream,” said a statement. “Mriya will definitely be reborn. The restoration is estimated to take over 3 bln USD and over 5 years.”
This was the world’s largest aircraft, AN-225 ‘Mriya’ (‘Dream’ in Ukrainian). Russia may have destroyed our ‘Mriya’. But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We shall prevail! pic.twitter.com/TdnBFlj3N8
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 27, 2022
