The world’s largest plane, Antonov AN- 225 has been destroyed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to CNN, the cargo plane, dubbed “Mriya” or “dream” in Ukrainian was parked at the airfield near Kyiv when it was struck by Russian forces.
Ukraine’s state-owned Ukroboronprom group on Sunday said,
“Russian invaders destroyed the flagship of the Ukrainian aviation, the AN-225” at the Antonov airport in Gostomel near Kyiv, the group said in a statement.
The aircraft was unique to the world, at 84 meters long (276 feet) it could transport up to 250 tonnes (551,000 pounds) of cargo at a speed of up to 850 kilometres per hour (528 mph).
“This was the world’s largest aircraft, AN-225 ‘Mriya’” Ukraine’ Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted Sunday.
“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!”, he added.