War in Ukraine
The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Ukraine had the world’s biggest plane. Russia’s assault destroyed it.

By
April 3, 2022 at 9:14 a.m. EDT
A Ukrainian service member walks in a front of an Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane, the world's biggest aircraft, destroyed by Russian troops as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, at an airfield in Hostomel, Ukraine, on April 2. (Stringer/Reuters)
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Russia has failed in its efforts to take Ukraine’s capital, but the suburbs around Kyiv have been decimated in the assault.

Among the rubble and wreckage: The remains of the massive Antonov AN-225 airplane — also called Mriya, or “dream” in Ukrainian — which had set a Guinness world record for being the largest aircraft by weight.