On Tuesday, May 6, 2025, Ukrainian Justice Minister Olha Stefanishyna announced on social media that the Attorney General of Canada had filed a request with the Ontario Superior Court to confiscate the An-124-100-150 Ruslan transport aircraft, registration number RA-82078 and serial number 9773054559153, owned by the Russian airline Volga-Dnepr – the aircraft has been grounded in Canada since 2022.
The Ruslan in question, which is to be handed over to Ukraine / Photo: Olha Stefanishyna via Facebook
As the Ukrainian minister stated, the confiscation proceedings are being carried out under Canada’s 1992 Special Economic Measures Act (SEMA), and the decision regarding the seizure is currently awaiting review by the Ontario Superior Court.
The Russian aircraft was grounded on February 27, 2022—three days after the outbreak of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war—at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada. The aircraft had delivered rapid COVID-19 test kits from Anchorage, Alaska. The grounding was related to the introduction of a ban on flights by Russian airline aircraft in the airspace of many Western countries, including Canada.
On March 17, 2022, Volga-Dnepr Airlines announced the suspension of all cargo flight operations across its entire fleet (three other Ruslans operated by the private airline were also to be grounded at Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport). In April of the same year, following the first wave of sanctions imposed on Russia, a Canadian court ordered the seizure of the Ruslan parked in Toronto.
On April 11, 2023, following a visit to Canada by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, Canadian Prime Minister at the time, Justin Trudeau, confirmed that the aircraft would be handed over to Ukraine as a form of compensation for the damage caused by Russia during the war.
In August of the same year, Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court, having established the legal grounds for the application of sanctions, approved a request by the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice to impose sanctions in the form of asset confiscation against the sanctioned company Volga-Dnepr, transferring those assets to the state budget.
On September 21, 2024, it was reported that specialists from Ukraine’s Antonov Company—the original designer of the aircraft (although this particular unit was manufactured by Russia’s ZOA Aviastar-SP in Ulyanovsk in 1995)—had inspected the plane at the request of the Canadian government and found it to be in excellent technical condition.
According to the latest statement by Ukraine’s Minister of Justice, Canada’s Attorney General, Arif Virani, has filed a request with the Ontario Superior Court to take possession of the Russian aircraft.
