Images show destruction of world’s largest airplane in Ukraine

Its fuselage is a charred and twisted gaping hole. Its gigantic wings are slumped to the ground, one of its engines burned and destroyed.

The huge train of tires on which the aircraft sits is still visible, as is the tattered nose cone, proudly bearing Ukrainian blue and yellow stripes and the “225” of its official designation.

But it’s clear the world’s largest commercial airplane, the Antonov AN-225, will never fly again.

The full extent of the damage to the aircraft, named “Mriya,” or “dream” in Ukrainian, was seen by CNN journalists after Russian troops withdrew last week from Hostomel airfield outside Kyiv, which was among the first strategic targets of the invasion of Ukraine.

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Broken dreams: The wreckage of the AN-225, known in Ukranian as Mriya, or Dream, has been revealed after Russian troops deserted an airfield outside Kyiv.

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End of a legend: The AN-225 was the world's largest commercial airplane, capable of carrying huge payloads. It had cult status in the aviation world.

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Beyond repair: It's not clear how the airplane was destroyed -- whether a deliberate act of sabotage or whether it suffered collateral damage in the offensive to capture the airfield.

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Recaptured airfield: Ukrainian troops have now recaptured Hostomel airfield from the Russians who took control of it in the first week of conflict in late February.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Price tag: Ukrainian officials have said they will rebuild the airplane, putting the cost of reconstruction at $3 billion.

Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Space role: The airplane was built in the 1980s, originally to support the Soviet space shuttle program. In more recent times it's been used to make large cargo deliveries, including medical equipment to help with the Covid pandemic.

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Burned-out engine: One of the AN-225's six huge turbofan jet engines has been completely destroyed.

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Undercarriage: Some of the AN-225's enormous central train of 28 wheels can still be seen intact despite the destruction wrought on the rest of the aircraft.

Mikhail Palinchak/Reuters

Fallen icon: News of the AN-225's destruction sent shock waves through the aviation world. The aircraft had drawn huge crowds whenever it appeared at airshows, or even made deliveries.

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AN-225 memories: The gigantic AN-225 in flight in 2020. The airplane had been in Ukraine for maintenance when it was destroyed.

The jet plane lies crumpled and broken beneath the shattered arch of an aircraft hangar, where it had been awaiting maintenance at the time of the invasion.

Around it lies the detritus of war – the airfield is littered with destroyed Russian hardware, including trucks, tanks, armored personnel carriers and spent munitions.

The AN-225’s destruction was a symbolic loss in the early throes of conflict. The aircraft, originally built to support the 1980s Soviet space shuttle program, had been a symbol of pride for Ukraine.

It also sent shockwaves through the world of aviation. The aircraft had been celebrated as a marvel of modern aerial engineering, regularly attracting crowds both at air shows where it was the star attraction and during its day-to-day cargo missions around the world.

Symbolic status

Immediately following reports of its demise, Ukrainian authorities vowed to rebuild the plane, saying Russia would be made to foot the $3 billion cost of reconstruction.

“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!” wrote Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Twitter at the time.

Russian troops began digging in at Hostomel shortly after gaining control of the airfield in late February. Following weeks of intense fighting, satellite images revealed last Thursday that Russian forces had suddenly disappeared.

Previous satellite images showed that, around military vehicles and artillery positions, the Russians had constructed protective earthen berms. Now, just the berms remain.

Ukrainian forces have since taken control of the facility, claiming it as a significant victory over the Russians. At the weekend, CNN journalists toured the airfield with Ukrainian National Police.

It was not clear what caused the airplane’s destruction – whether it was an act of deliberate sabotage or collateral damage from the military offensive to take control of the airfield.

But despite the AN-255’s dilapidated state, many soldiers were taking photographs of the aircraft, Mriya’s symbolic status among Ukrainians clearly undiminished

CNN’s Barry Neild and Paul P. Murphy contributed to this story