Antonov employees have finished salvaging intact components from the wreck of the first An-225 Mriya that was destroyed in the opening days of the war in early 2022. Currently, the company's main efforts are focused on "more priority tasks for the state."
Building another An-225 plane was financed by a special fund, which had accumulated $3 million from donations.
On Feb. 27, 2022, during an attack on Hostomel Airport near Kyiv, Russian forces destroyed the An-225 Mriya, the world's largest aircraft, which was designed and built in Ukraine.
On April 5, 2023, former Antonov General Director, Serhiy Bychkov, was charged with criminal negligence. According to Ukraine’s SBU security service, before the invasion, the An-225 Mriya was supposed to be flown to Leipzig, Germany. Bychkov cancelled the flight, leaving the aircraft at the airfield that was the primary objective of Moscow’s airborne forces in the initial invasion plans.