Lumbering An-124 Condor Cargo Jet Appears In Kyiv’s Highly-Restricted Airspace
Jul 11, 2025 | Uncategorized
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
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.
“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.
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.
Dmytro Antonov se dostal do hangáru v Hostomelu. Letadlo An-124 UR-82009 je také poškozeno. pic.twitter.com/216ZzFrdXj
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.”
Ukrainians spotted a plane over their skies with the call sign PTNPNH—short for “Putin, go f*ck yourself.” pic.twitter.com/FEOVyoSuAd
Still, this would not account for why the An-124 was flying low over Kyiv with its gear transitioning.
Regardless, flight data from FlightRadar24 shows the AN-124 flying over western Ukraine near the Polish border at 2:17 PM local time, but with no origination point. It is highly likely that the jet turned off its transponder until nearly out of Ukrainian airspace to help avoid detection. The jet then flew over Poland and landed in the German city of Leipzig.
It is worth noting that any aircraft that large would have given off enough signatures for the Russians to easily spot it, at least if it climbed to higher altitudes (especially if no A-50 is up). That the An-124 was able to take off from Ukraine and fly over Ukrainian airspace unscathed is a bone of contention for the popular Fighterbomber Telegram channel.
“A sad event, of course. For our intelligence first and foremost,” stated Figtherbomber, closely tied to Russian military aviation. “The sad thing here is not that the An-124 arrived, but that it was able to leave intact and unharmed. It arrived, of course, at night, later, when our agents are asleep.”
“There are literally only a couple of airfields in Ukraine capable of receiving and dispatching an aircraft of this size,” Fighterbomber continued. “Organizing surveillance over them is a sacred duty of any intelligence service. Of any country. Moreover, it stayed there for far more than an hour. And we have plenty of means to strike it at any airfield.”
Exactly what ‘surveillance over them’ the popular Telegram channel is referring to isn’t clear, but it’s also worth noting that the runway at the Antonov plant is only 6,000-feet-long. An-124s can fly out of shorter fields when lightly loaded with cargo and gas.
While Russia may have the means, its ossified kill chain likely makes it hard to strike a dynamic target, even one as large and lumbering as an An-124. Lack of intelligence and/or Kyiv’s air defenses likely meant it wasn’t destroyed on the ground days prior to its departure. Shooting down in the air would be a challenge that would require a very long-range missile shot from either the air or the ground.
Russia does not possess the weapons or networking capability to hit moving targets like weapons convoys with standoff cruise or ballistic missiles. This means in order for them to interdict or destroy these shipments they will not only need actionable intelligence, but…
This Video that @JulianRoepcke shared gives us very important datapoints:
AN-124 have the Radar Return of a small planet and are very slow, hence easy to spot and shoot down, allowing us to derive that Ukraine has confidence in two things:
Regenerating an An-124 for cargo charter operations would be a major win for Antonov Airlines and Ukraine. These operations are a major source of revenue and work to support the war operation directly. We have reached out to Antonov to find out more about this mystery flight. We will update this story with any pertinent details provided.
While this is the first time an An-124 has been seen over Kyiv, it is not the first time large cargo jets have been in Ukrainian airspace since the full-on invasion kicked off. In December 2022, “two Turkish Air Force A400M aircraft that had been stranded at Kyiv-Boryspil International Airport since the start of the war were finally allowed to leave,” the Aerotime aviation website noted. “Originally sent on a humanitarian mission, the aircraft remained grounded for 10 months before successfully returning to Turkey following diplomatic negotiations.” It’s also worth noting that the runways and long, straight taxiways at airports around Kyiv have had obstacles put on them ever since the invasion began as a countermeasure to keep Russian aircraft full of commandos and material from landing on them.
Meanwhile, regardless of where it took off from or why, seeing a non-threatening aircraft overhead was a breath of fresh air for some Kyiv residents.
“I never thought that an ordinary plane in the Ukrainian sky could cause so many emotions
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,” the Trukha news outlet reported on Telegram. “And seriously – it’s a cargo An-124, not a passenger one.”
