“Due to the harsh weather conditions, the situation is difficult in a number of regions in the European part of the country,” Putin said during a videoconference meeting with regional officials on the wildfires.
“These are above all the forest fires in the Ryazan region”, located about 250 kilometers east of Moscow, he said.
Already more than 11,700 hectares burned
According to the local emergency services, the forest fires devastated more than 11,700 hectares in the Ryazan region, against the backdrop of daily temperatures exceeding 31ºCelsius, accompanied by gusts of wind blowing with a speed of 10 meters per second.
More than 9,500 firefighters and rescuers were dispatched to the scene to fight the fire, as well as eight specialized planes and seven helicopters, declared for his part the acting governor of the region, Pavel Malkov, during the meeting chaired by Mr. . Cheese fries.
“It’s a very hard test,” he lamented, stressing that there is “no precipitation and we are not expecting any soon”.
Mr. Malkov, however, said he was confident that the fires “will be brought under control within two or three days and fully extinguished within one or two weeks”.
Smoke in Moscow
Last week, smoke from those fires, which had been going on for days, finally blanketed parts of the city of Moscow. Monday again, the smoke and the smell of burning were present in several districts of the capital.
The town hall of Moscow reacted strongly by dispatching 8,500 men to the Ryazan region to put out the fire, in support of a thousand local firefighters and rescue workers already mobilized.
“Smoke periodically covers Moscow, but the situation is becoming more controllable today,” the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin, welcomed Mr. Putin on Wednesday.
Russia has been hit in recent years by serious forest fires, particularly in Siberia and the Far East, gigantic and difficult to reach areas.