PHOTOS: This was AN-225, the largest plane in the world destroyed by Russia during the invasion of Ukraine

Ukrainians called it “Mriya”, which means “dream”. During 30 years caught the attention of aeronautics fans not only for its technology, but also for being the largest plane in the world. The AN-159 was used to transport aid to different countries in times of crisis and was destroyed by Russia during the invasion of Ukraine. Now his greatness has been recorded in photos and videos of his stellar appearances at air shows.

The Antonov company created the AN-200 at the request of the government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the decade of the 70, when it required a huge airship to transport the Buran spaceship to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the desert of Kazakhstan. It was the time of the space race between the then Soviet Union and the United States.

With the disappearance of the socialist bloc in Europe and the reconfiguration of the then USSR, the AN-225 became an iconic aircraft in air shows and a protagonist for the delivery of food and medical supplies in tragedies as emblematic as the earthquake in Haiti in 1988 or the first weeks of the COVID-pandemic 19, when medical supplies were urgently required.

The AN-225 as we knew it first flew in 1988 and has been in service ever since. It was capable of carrying a maximum payload of 250 tons, either inside or on its back, and was powered by six turbofan engines.

Last Sunday, a A tweet from Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba revealed the fate of the iconic aircraft: “This was the largest aircraft in the world, AN-225 ‘Mriya’ (‘dream’ in Ukrainian). Russia may have destroyed our ‘Mriya’. But they can never destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We will prevail!” reads his post.

A statement from Ukroboronprom, the Ukrainian defense company that manages the Mirya , points out that the Russian occupants destroyed the aircraft at the Antonov aerodrome in Gostomel, near Kiev, where it was undergoing maintenance, so it could not be evacuated.

“Ukraine will do everything possible to ensure that the aggressor state pays” for the reconstruction work of the plane, which is estimated at more than $3, million dollars and in more than five years , says the statement.