Canada sues to confiscate Russian An-124: plans to give it to Ukraine

Canada plans to send a Russian An-124 cargo plane to Ukraine if it wins a lawsuit over the official arrest of the airliner. This was reported by Bloomberg.

Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said on Friday that her government has filed a lawsuit to confiscate a Russian-registered An-124 aircraft that has been grounded at Toronto's Pearson International Airport since February 2022. The plane belongs to the Volga-Dnipro group, which Canada has imposed sanctions on.

"The Antonov airplane is a powerful symbol of responsibility. Those who facilitate Russia's war will face the consequences, and Ukraine will not be left to rebuild alone," Anand said at a briefing on the sidelines of the G7 Energy and Environment Ministers' Summit in Toronto.

The An-124 is one of the largest cargo planes in the world, and Canadian officials have previously warned that Russia could use it to deliver military supplies to further its war against Ukraine.

Unraveling the ownership structure of the plane has been a difficult task, Anand said. Her government launched a legal action earlier this year. The minister added that Canada is committed to helping Ukraine in its time of need .

"I will say that Russia has completely destroyed some Ukrainian Antonov aircraft that were in Ukraine at the beginning of the war. And so, in a sense, this is a replenishment of the Antonov fleet," emphasized the Canadian Foreign Minister.

The government is considering several options for rerouting the plane to Ukraine, which, in addition to litigation, could include a legislative process, Anand said.

In her opening remarks, the official condemned Russia's strategy of "barbaric attacks on Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure, kindergartens, apartment buildings, elderly people's homes and hospitals," as well as its attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

The Canadian government will expedite the release of the last 10 million Canadian dollars ($7.1 million) of the 70 million Canadian dollars it has allocated to reconstruct Ukraine's energy grids so that the money can be used to repair facilities damaged by Russian attacks, she said.

• As a result of hostilities at the Antonov International Airport in Gostomel, three AN aircraft were destroyed: the world's largest An-225 Mriya, the An-26 turboprop, and the An-74 known as the Cheburashka.
• On July 11, 2025, Antonov Airlines managed to successfully evacuate its An-124-100 Ruslan aircraft from Ukraine to Germany, which was in a disassembled state at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.