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Team

Olena Goncharova photo

Olena Goncharova

Special Correspondent

Olena Goncharova is the Special Correspondent for the Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

Articles

Antonov An-124 cargo aircraft is seen at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Jan. 8, 2025.

A million-dollar parking fee: Canada's high-stakes battle over a stranded Russian plane

by Olena Goncharova
In what is potentially the world's most expensive parking ticket, a Russian-registered Antonov An-124 has remained locked in a frozen embrace with the tarmac at Toronto Pearson Airport. Stranded for almost four years, the aircraft has racked up over $1.5 million Canadian dollars ($1.1 million) in parking fees. Parked so long, in fact, that it has found its way onto the infrequently updated satellite views of the airport in both Apple Maps and Google Maps. But for an international community tha