The world's largest aircraft, the Antonov AN-225, ended its service today after being destroyed by a Russian attack on Ukraine.
It is understood that the plane named "Mriya" was at the airport near Kyiv when it was attacked by Russian invaders.
This sad news was announced by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba via a tweet on Twitter:
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
Even so, the aircraft manufacturer, Antonov Company could not further detail the technical condition of Mriya because it has not yet been investigated by experts.
But if seen on satellite pictures, the destruction of the hangar that houses Mriya is quite severe. Several shots and explosions were also heard in the vicinity.
At the same time, the defense company overseeing Antonov claimed Russia needed compensation for the reconstruction of Mriya and its cost cost up to over $ 3 billion over a period of over 5 years!
For the record, the Antonov AN-225 is the heaviest aircraft that has served for more than 30 years since the rule of the Soviet Union.
These planes offer infinite services - sometimes used for air transport assistance during crises in other countries.
After the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, it was used to send relief supplies to the Dominic Republic. In fact, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it had assisted in the diversion of change supplies to affected countries.
