Ukraine providing ‘significant challenge’ to Russia, MOD says after Ukrainians regain control of Kyiv region | War latest

Ukrainian soldiers are in control of Hostomel Airport (also known as Antonov Airport), where Russian troops tried to storm the runway early in the war.

At the airport are the remains of one of the world’s largest planes – Mriya, an Antonov An-225, destroyed during the fighting.

Oleksandr Merkushev, mayor of the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, said on Saturday: “The Russians couldn’t make one like it, so they destroyed it.”

The plane was designed in the 1980s in what was then Soviet Ukraine, flying for the first time in 1988.

Initially it flew military missions but after eight years in storage, it was refurbished and reintroduced into commercial operation to carry oversized cargo. It had a maximum take-off weight of 640 tonnes and held several records.

In 2009, it carried a 189-tonne gas power plant generator and loading frame to Armenia; and in 2010, it carried two 42.1m-long test wind turbine blades from China to Denmark.

The final picture shows the plane as it was before the war.