The world’s largest plane, the Antonov-225 cargo plane, was destroyed by Russian forces on day 4 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, tweeted on 27 February that the “Mriya” was destroyed by Russian strikes.
Kuleba added that Russia may have destroyed their Mriya, but Ukraine’s dream of a free and democratic country will never be destroyed, and that they will prevail.”
The biggest plane in the world
The Mriya, which translates to “dream”, is an 84 meters long aircraft that can transport up to 250 tonnes of cargo.
It can also travel at a velocity of about 850km/h, and was initially built as part of a Soviet programme, used to transport space vehicles.
The Mriya was also used to transport humanitarian aid globally, but it hadn’t flown since the Soviet Union fell.
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