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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Antonov An-225 Mriya | 4/5 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-225_Mriya | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T12:39:25.846303+00:00 | kb-cron |
The aircraft's last commercial mission was from 2 to 5 February 2022, to collect almost 90 tons of COVID-19 test kits from Tianjin, China, and deliver them to Billund, Denmark, via Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. From there, it returned on 5 February to its base at Antonov Airport in Hostomel, where it underwent an engine swap. On the advice of NATO, it was prepared for evacuation, scheduled for the morning of 24 February, but on that day Russia invaded, with the airfield being one of their first targets. A ban on civilian flights was quickly enacted by Ukrainian authorities. During the ensuing Battle of Antonov Airport, the runway was rendered unusable. On 24 February, the An-225 was said to be intact. On 27 February, a photo was posted on Twitter of an object tentatively identified as the An-225 on fire in its hangar. A report by the Ukrainian edition of Radio Liberty stated that the airplane was destroyed during the Battle of Antonov Airport, which was repeated by Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and by Ukroboronprom, Antonov's parent organisation. The Antonov company initially refused to confirm or deny the reports, and said it was still investigating them. Also on 27 February 2022, a press release by Ukroboronprom stated that the An-225 had been destroyed by Russian forces. Several other aircraft were in the same hangar as the An-225 at the time of its destruction, and were also destroyed or damaged during the battle; these include a Hungarian-registered Cessna 152, which was crushed by the An-225's left wingtip after the latter fell on top of it.
Ukroboronprom said that they planned to rebuild the plane at the Russians' expense. The statement said: "The restoration is estimated to take over 3 billion USD and over five years. Our task is to ensure that these costs are covered by the Russian Federation, which has caused intentional damage to Ukraine's aviation and the air cargo sector." The Ukrainian government also said that it would be rebuilt.
=== Aftermath ===
On 1 March, a new photograph, taken since the initial conflict, was tentatively identified as the tail of the aircraft protruding from its hangar, suggesting that it remained at least partly intact. However, further evidence proved to show that the aircraft is inoperable due to the extreme damage it sustained. On 3 March, a video circulated on social media, showing the aircraft burning inside the hangar alongside several Russian trucks, confirming its likely destruction. Nonetheless, Antonov reiterated that until experts inspect the aircraft, its official status cannot be fully determined. On 4 March, footage on Russian state television Channel One showed the first clear ground images of the destroyed aircraft, with much of the front section missing. Following Russia's withdrawal from northern Ukraine, the second unfinished aircraft airframe was reported to be intact, despite Russian artillery strikes on the hangar housing it at the Antonov factory at Sviatoshyn Airfield. Major Dmytro Antonov, the pilot of the An-225, alleged on 19 March 2022 that Antonov Airlines knew that an invasion was imminent for quite some time, but did nothing to prevent the loss of the aircraft. On his YouTube channel, Antonov accused company management of not doing enough to prevent the destruction of the aircraft, after having been advised by NATO to move the aircraft (ready to fly status) to Leipzig, Germany, in advance. Multiple Antonov staff have denied his allegations. On 1 April, drone footage of Hostomel Airport showed the destroyed Mriya, with the forward fuselage completely burned and the wings partly intact. It was later revealed that the right wing had been broken, but was held up only by its engines resting on the ground. Investigations into rebuilding the An-225 are underway, including the possibility of cannibalising the second, incomplete An-225 or salvaging the remnants of the first plane to finish the second. However, several obstacles stand in the way of rebuilding. Many of the aircraft's Soviet-made components were from the 1980s and are no longer made. Engineers quote a price of US$350–500 million, although there is uncertainty about whether it would be commercially viable and worth the cost. However, Andrii Sovenko, a former An-225 pilot and aviation author, said:
It's impossible to talk about the repair or restoration of this aircraft – we can only talk about the construction of another Mriya, using individual components that can be salvaged from the wreckage and combining them with those that were, back in the 1980s, intended for the construction of a second aircraft. On 20 May 2022, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced his intentions to complete the second An-225, to replace the destroyed aircraft and as a tribute to all the Ukrainian pilots killed during the war. In November 2022, Antonov confirmed plans to rebuild the aircraft at an estimated cost of $500 million. At the time, the company did not state whether parts from the wrecked aircraft and the incomplete airframe would be combined to create a new flying aircraft or where funding might come from. Four months later, Antonov confirmed that parts had been removed from the wrecked aircraft for future mating to the unfinished fuselage. In March 2023, the Ukrainian government announced that it detained two of three Antonov officials suspected of preventing the Ukrainian National Guard from setting up defenses at Hostomel Airport in anticipation of an invasion. In April 2023, Ukrainian prosecutors charged the former head of Antonov, Serhii Bychkov, with "official negligence" for failing to order the aircraft flown to Leipzig, Germany, ahead of the Russian invasion. The Ukraine Security Service (SBU), which investigated the case, stated, "according to the investigation, on the eve of the full-scale invasion, the An-225 was in proper technical condition, which allowed it to fly outside Ukraine. Instead, the general director of the company did not give appropriate instructions regarding the evacuation of Mriya abroad. Such criminal actions of the official led to the destruction of the Ukrainian transport plane."
== Former operators ==