Destruction of the An-225 ‘Mriya’ – the SSU accused the management of the ‘Antonov’ state enterprise of official negligence, which led to the loss of the legendary aircraft
The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) shared the details of the investigation into the destruction of the AN-225 ‘Mriya’ Destruction of the An-225 ‘Mriya’ – the SSU accused the management of the Antonov State Enterprise of official negligence, which led to the loss of the legendary aircraft – in a message on the SSU website it is noted that the helmsmen of the State Enterprise ‘Antonov’, despite the warnings of state authorities, did not take appropriate measures to preserve the world’s largest (by weight of cargo transportation) and unique transport aircraft.
Employees of the SSU, together with representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office, conducted a number of searches as part of the relevant criminal proceedings and are now establishing all the circumstances of the destruction of the AN-225 ‘Mriya’ aircraft and, in particular, why the management of the State Enterprise ‘Antonov’ did not take all necessary measures to preserve it. At the same time, it is reported that individual employees of the enterprise have been preventing the Defense Forces from organizing anti-aircraft and ground protection of the monument for a long time. All this led to the destruction of AN-225 and several other aircraft.
Thus, it can be stated that the SSU sided with the former commander of ‘Mria’ Dmytro Antonov, who previously accused the management of ‘Antonov’ of inaction, which led to the loss of the plane.
Currently, the SSU investigators, who are conducting a pre-trial investigation under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor General’s Office, are studying additional details of this case and the necessary examinations are being conducted to establish all the circumstances of criminal acts and the circle of guilty persons, after which further procedural decisions will be made.
At the same time, during the identification of persons guilty of subversive activities against Ukraine, facts of other crimes were also discovered. Thus, the former general director of the state enterprise Serhiy Bychkov was exposed for organizing the illegal transportation abroad of Ukrainians of draft age. According to the investigation materials, in March of this year, the official submitted to the State Border Service a list of employees traveling abroad for aircraft maintenance, and he included outsiders in the group on business trips. Among them is his close relative. Thus, evaders were able to cross the border under the guise of aircraft construction specialists. Based on this fact, the ex-director has already been notified of suspicion under Part 2 of Art. 332 (illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
At the end of April, the general director of Ukroboronprom said that specialists are already working on the restoration of the An-225 Mriya aircraft with the involvement of international partners and modern technologies. According to preliminary estimates, it will take more than $3 billion and about 5 years to rebuild ‘Mriya’. At the same time, the new management of the Antonov State Enterprise discussed plans for the complete reconstruction of the Antonov airport, preliminarily estimating the cost of the work at about $0.5 billion, and the construction of a small passenger terminal, which will be able to compete with Kyiv airport, at the expense of private investors. Previously, Richard Branson was interested in the restoration of the Antonov airport in Gostomel – at the end of June, the famous British billionaire and founder of the Virgin Galactic space company visited and was then called one of the likely investors. But since then, there has been no news about a potential partnership between Ukroboronprom or Antonov with Richard Branson’s companies.
