Russian strikes in Ukraine destroy world’s largest plane

The largest plane in the world — Ukraine’s Antonov-225 cargo plane — was destroyed by Russian strikes outside Kyiv on the fourth day of Moscow’s invasion, Ukraine’s state-owned Ukroboronprom group said Sunday. “Russian invaders destroyed the flagship of the Ukrainian aviatio , the AN-225” at the Antonov airport in Gostomel near Kyiv, the group said in a statement. The aircraft was called "Mriya", which means " (a) dream" in Ukrainian. "A symbol of hope in the darkest hours of COVID, Mriya (Dream), the world’s largest plane, carried vast quantities of life-saving vaccine and PPE around the globe. It is now destroyed by Russian invaders in its war against Ukraine and the wider world (sic)," the ministry of foreign affairs tweeted. 

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

The aircraft was unique to the world, at 84 meters long (276 feet) it could transport up to 250 tons (551,000 pounds) of cargo at a speed of up to 850 kilometers per hour (528 mph). Weapons manufacturer Ukroboronprom estimated that restoring the “Mriya” would cost more than $3 billion (2.7 billion euros) and could take over five years.