The stories coming out of Ukraine continue to highlight the amount of damage being done to the country's economy and infrastructure, on top of all the tragic loss of life. The latest casualty of the ongoing conflict is Dnipro International Airport, which was said to be in the middle of a significant reconstruction process.
Completely destroyed
The airport serving the Ukrainian city of Dnipro has been destroyed in the latest Russian attacks, reports have emerged. One of the largest cities in Ukraine, Dnipro is considered a significant industrial, transport, education, and social center.
With almost one million inhabitants, Dnipro has been on the Russian radar since the beginning of the war but had not seen the scale of attacks as other parts of the country. The city's airport received heavy damage on March 15th when it was attacked for the first time. But the latest shelling by Russian forces has completely destroyed it.
Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of the central Dnipropetrovsk region, said,
“There has been another attack on Dnipro airport. There is nothing left of it. The airport itself and the infrastructure around it has been destroyed. Rockets keep flying and flying.”
On the brink of completion
Dnipro International Airport was being redeveloped to provide a significant economic push for the Dnipropetrovsk region in the years to come. According to Business Ukraine, the airport had seen very little modernization since the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, and a comprehensive upgrade of its facilities had been discussed for years.
But it was only towards the end of the last decade that serious thought was given to its upgrade. The airport saw substantial investment in the last few years through a public-private partnership (PPP) between the Ukrainian state and businessman Oleksandr Yaroslavsky's DCH Group to bring it up to international standards.
Work on a new terminal and runway continued even during the pandemic and, according to some estimates, was expected to be completed between this year and next. Local authorities were particularly happy with the project, viewing it as the jewel in the crown of a wider infrastructure upgrade that was expected to make the region significantly more accessible and economically attractive to investors.
But all of that was razed to the ground in the most recent attack, amounting to a massive loss of money, resources, and years of work and labor.
Impact of the war on aviation in the region
Ukraine's aviation infrastructure has faced massive destruction in the current conflict. Airports, airplanes, and much of the aviation ecosystem in the country have been destroyed, and the consequences will likely affect the people for years to come.
One of the initial casualties was the world's largest plane, the Antonov An-225 Mriya. But it was only recently airline's chief pilot, Major Dmytro Antonov (Dmytro), returned to Hostomel Airport to film a video that showed the actual level of destruction of the aircraft.
Simple Flying also reported recently how Kyiv's Oleg Antonov Aviation Museum had asked people to donate or buy e-tickets to help the site survive after it was forced to close its doors. The war has also affected cargo operations in the country, with all the major players such as FedEx, DHL, and UPS out of the picture and only a handful of Antonov airplanes shouldering the task of carrying cargo with minimal flights.
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Source: Business Ukraine