Canada is progressing with a legal quote to gain full belongings of a Russian Antonov An-124 freight airplane and possibly hand it over to Ukraine, the countrys foreign ministry has said.The Antonov An-124 the worlds largest mass-produced freight airplane has been stranded at Toronto Pearson International Airport for over three years due to airspace constraints that Canada imposed due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.The Attorney General of Canada commenced forfeiture procedures by looking for the issuance of a Notice of Application by the Superior Court of Ontario on March 18, 2025, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada told the Ontario-based news outlet Insauga.The Antonov An-124is among 26 airplane of its type in the world.
Approximately the height of a seven-story building and nearly the length of a football field, it is owned by Volga-Dnepr Airlines, a personal Russian freight carrier, and is valued at approximately $300 million.The plane had actually been transferring a shipment of Covid-19 test packages from China to Canada when Russia introduced its invasion of Ukraine on Feb.
24, 2022.
Ottawa closed its airspace to Russian airline companies three days later, while the aircraft was still discharging its freight in Toronto.Canadian authorities formally seized the airplane in June 2023.
At the time, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the aircraft would quickly be delivered to Kyiv so it could never ever be utilized by Russia again.Ownership of the plane has actually since been bound in an ongoing legal fight, with Volga-Dnepr filing lawsuits in Canada in a quote to stop the confiscation.TheRussian Foreign Ministry has actually called the seizure of the plane cynical and shameless theft.
Volga-Dnepr creator Alexei Isaikin, a former military economic expert, developed the business into a global leader in large cargo transportation using the Antonov An-124 in the 1990s.
He was sanctioned by the United States, Canada and the U.K.
following the intrusion of Ukraine.Ownership of the airline company has actually considering that passed to senior executives Igor Aksenov, Valery Gabriel, Sergei Dyachkov and Vildan Zinnurov.