In a twitter message Dmytro Kuleba confirmed that the worlds largest cargo aircraft, the Antonov 225 Mriya is most likely destroyed during the fights for control of the Antonov Airlines home base ‘Gostomel Airport’ near Kiev.

Photo’s of an explosion and fire in the large hanger that houses the AN-225 already raised concerns about the condition of this unique one of a kind aircraft that was specially built to transport the Soviet rival of the space shuttle (Buran). After the fall of the iron curtain the AN-225 was in service with Antonov Airlines along with other big airlifters like the AN-124.

Kuleb wrote on Twitter: “Russia may have destroyed our Mriya (Dream) but they can never destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European State. We will Triumph!”

At the moment of publishing this message Antonov is stating they are investigating the situation and cannot confirm or deny the destruction of the AN-225 just yet and ask for patience

For More Facts and Figures about the AN-225 Mriya which we visited in Berlin some years ago, visit our AN-225 Fact Sheet on our sister site zap16.com