The sight of a massive Antonov An-124 Ruslan (NATO reporting name Condor) cargo jet over Kyiv on Friday sparked joy from Ukrainians, derision from Russians, and a mystery about why it was flying and where it came from. Airspace over the Ukrainian capital has been strictly closed mainly to all non-combat aircraft flights since the start of Russia’s all-out invasion, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. So seeing a locally-built An-124, a source of pride for the Ukrainians, flying above the capital once again was a surprise for many, to say the least. So what was the Condor doing over Kyiv? The answer is unclear at the moment, but we have some strong indications of where it originated from and why.
You can see the jet in the videos and still photographs below.
I heard, but did not see, this aircraft flying overhead earlier today. It understandably cause quite a stir; we haven’t seen such large aircraft over the city since late February 2022. https://t.co/jbbLKQtI9h
— Jimmy Rushton (@JimmySecUK) July 11, 2025
The An-124 seen over Kyiv. (Via X)
One of the world’s largest aircraft, for decades An-124 Condors have provided charter cargo services for western militaries, companies and NGOs. This includes Ukraine’s own Antonov Airlines, which also operated the An-124’s big brother, the mighty and now destroyed An-225. An-124s have been contracted by the U.S. and NATO to deliver war materiel bound for Ukraine to airbases in Poland. This flight, however, appears to have originated in Ukraine and ended in Leipzig, Germany. Where it took off from is a matter of contention.
The aircraft, with the tail number UR-82073, is registered to the aforementioned Antonov Airlines.
It is most likely that the aircraft in question had been stranded in Ukraine since 2022 and took off from the Svyatoshino airport in Kyiv. That’s the headquarters of the Antonov Serial Production Plant, which escaped largely unscathed during the early days of the all-out war while the nearby Hostomel Airport was destroyed, along with the An-225 and other aircraft housed there, in one of the first battles of this conflict.
“It appears that an Antonov AN-124, UR-82073, has escaped from Ukraine to Liepzig, Germany after being stranded for over 4 years,” X user @TheIntelFrog claimed on the social media platform. “The last flight I can find for this aircraft was 13 March 2021 when it landed in Kyiv.”
It appears that an Anotonov AN-124, UR-82073, has escaped from Ukraine to Liepzig, Germany after being stranded for over 4 years.
The last flight I can find for this aircraft was 13 March 2021 when it landed in Kyiv. https://t.co/8lBdIXtfju pic.twitter.com/UCehd353Lz
— TheIntelFrog (@TheIntelFrog) July 11, 2025
The Ukrainian General Staff Chat Telegram channel concurred with that assessment.
“An-124-100 reg UR-82073 is being evacuated from Svyatoshino, where it has been standing since the beginning of the full scale war,” General Staff Chat posited.
Satellite imagery obtained by The War Zone seems to back up this assertion. Taken July 2 by Planet Labs, the image shows that there was two relatively intact An-124s on the apron at the time. One in particular seems to have been active, with the aircraft moving to the runway on July 5th.
An apparently intact An-124 Condor was seen on an apron at the Svyatshino airfield on July 2. PHOTO © 2025 PLANET LABS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION
A low resolution image taken on July 5th showing the Condor from the main ramp on the runway. (PHOTO © 2025 PLANET LABS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRINTED BY PERMISSION)
We checked recent satellite imagery of other airports in Kyiv, and no An-124s were present, aside from one that was derelict in the aircraft graveyard at war-torn Hostomel Airport. There was another An-124 in better condition that was inside the large hangar at Hostomel, but it too was far from being in flyable condition, at least as it was photographed after fighting subsided at the airport in 2022. It very well could have been damaged beyond repair in that fighting, we just don’t know. It also wears a different registration than the aircraft seen flying over Kyiv.
Regardless, it is quite likely that the An-124 in question was heading to Antonov’s facility in Leipzig, Germany, where it moved a lot of its operations after the 2022 invasion.
An Antonov An-124 Condor takes flight. (Antonov)
Adding to the mystery, others are claiming that the flight originated in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. There were suggestions that an aircraft appearing on flight tracking data via an invalid transponder code as a drone with the callsign PTNPNH2 was actually the Condor. The hypothesis that the aircraft was transmitting a false transponder code to mimic a drone seems highly questionable though, especially since there was another similarly named flight, PTNPNH1, that was also spotted on flight tracking sites.
Still, the Astra news outlet and several influential Russian Telegram channels support the suggestion that the flight originated in Dnipro.
“The aircraft, which took off from Dnipro, is marked by the [flight tracking] service as a ‘drone,’” Astra noted on Telegram. “There is no information about the route of any aircraft in the sky over Ukraine on Flightradar24.”
Russian Telegram channels claimed Ukraine was trying to move the jet ahead of an anticipated attack on the Dnipro region.
“The Ukrainian An-124 Ruslan spotted in the sky over Kyiv took off from the Dnepropetrovsk airport,” the Russian Military Informant Telegram claimed. “ It is possible that its owner, the Antonov company, is ferrying the plane to western Ukraine or even to Europe, where the plane will not be destroyed. This is happening against the backdrop of the beginning of fighting in the Dnepropetrovsk region and the first air strikes on targets within the city.”
Still, this