The world’s largest aircraft – Ukraine’s Antonov 225 cargo plane – was destroyed by Russian strikes outside Kyiv on the fourth day of the invasion of Moscow. Images that circulate on social networks show the enormous damage it presents and for which it is estimated that it will take more than five years to restore it.

“Russian invaders destroyed the flagship of Ukrainian aviation, the AN-225” at Antonov Gostomel airport near Kyiv, confirmed Ukroboronprom, the state-owned company in charge of Ukraine’s military-industrial arsenal.

The plane was unique in the world. It had six engines capable of reaching 850 kilometres per hour, ascending up to 12,000 meters and flying nonstop distances of up to 15,400 kilometres. At 84 meters long, it could carry up to 250 tons of cargo. He was christened “Mriya”, which means “dream” in Ukrainian.

“This was the world’s largest aircraft, the AN-225 ‘Mriya’, ” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted on Sunday. “Russia may have destroyed our ‘Mriya’. But they can never destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state. We will win,” he added.

Hostomel airport in Ukraine has seen violent clashes since the start of the Russian invasion, launched by President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.

Arms manufacturer Ukroboronprom estimated that restoring the “Mriya” would cost more than $3 billion (2.7 billion euros) and could take more than five years. “Our mission is to ensure that these expenses are covered by Russia, which deliberately inflicted damage on Ukraine’s aviation,” the state consortium said.

Initially built as part of the Soviet aircraft programme, the An-225 made its maiden flight in 1988. After years without flying after the fall of the Soviet Union, the only extant example made a test flight in 2001 at Gostomel, some 20 kilometers from Kyiv.

It has been operated by the Ukrainian airline Antonov for cargo flights and was in high demand during the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. The plane arrived in Ukraine from Denmark on February 5 and had not left the airfield since then, the scene of heavy clashes between Russian and Ukrainian forces in recent days.