The largest airplane in the world is destroyed; Who is guilty? Well, Ukrainians VIDEO

The largest airplane in the world is destroyed; Who is guilty? Well, Ukrainians VIDEO

According to the Ukrainian portal Pravda, as reported by Aero.rs, for the destruction of the Antonov An-225 "Mryja", after a two-year investigation, the director of the Antonov factory, Serhiy Bychkov, and the head of security, Oleksandr Netosov, have been charged with 15 years in prison for the destruction of that plane.

"Mrija" was completely destroyed in the hangar, during the attack of the Russian forces on the Hostomel airport, and the official date of destruction is given as February 27, 2022, when a video of the burning aircraft was published. "Criminal actions of former officials resulted in the temporary seizure of a strategically important airport during the battle for Kyiv and the destruction of the 'Mriya' AN-225 aircraft. SBU investigators completed the pre-criminal investigation and submitted the indictment to the court," according to the SBU statement quoted by the Ukrainian portal Pravda.

The Ukrainian security service has charged the former general director of a state-owned enterprise.

The investigation established that in January, and then in February, on the eve of the invasion of the Russian Federation, the accused Bychkov refused to allow members of the armed forces of Ukraine to enter the territory of the Hostomel airport in order to prepare for its defense, Pravda further quotes the statement of the security service.

In the attack on the Hostomel airport, next to which the Antonov production plant and administration building are located, two more aircraft were destroyed: An-74 and An-26, while the An-22, An-124 Ruslan and An-132 aircraft were also severely damaged.

The Antonov An-225 Mriya was the largest transport aircraft in the world, produced in the Soviet Union for the needs of the Buran space shuttle program there. The Soviet space shuttle had only one mission (which it carried out by taking off from Mriya), and the giant aircraft powered by six Progress D-18T turbojet engines changed its purpose after the shutdown of the program: it became a cargo plane for transporting bulky cargo that could not be transported by train.

The plane was grounded in 2009, to be put back into service in 2020 after modernization and the certification process.