In the fight against forest fires in Siberia involve soldiers of the Ministry of Defense of Russia. Such an order was given by Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the near future in the Krasnoyarsk region aircraft department arrives.

“The servicemen of the Ministry of Defense will join in extinguishing fires in Siberia - such a decision was made by Vladimir Putin after the report of the Emergency Situations Minister Evgeny Zinichev,” the Kremlin’s press service said.

At the same time, the head of state ordered to preserve the grouping of the Armed Forces in Tulun, formed to eliminate the consequences of flooding in the Irkutsk region.

“Currently, forest fires are marked on the territory of Taimyr, Evenkia, Boguchansky, Kezhemsky, Yenisey, Motyginsky and Aban districts. Because of the fires, an emergency situation was introduced throughout the Irkutsk Region, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in two districts of Buryatia and one region of Yakutia, ”the Kremlin added.

In turn, the press service of the Ministry of Defense indicated that after the President’s instructions, an aviation group was being formed of 10 Il-76 airplanes and 10 helicopters of the Military Transport Aviation of the Russian Air Force, equipped with special spillway devices.

“The attracted crews of the BTA VKS of Russia have special training and have repeatedly performed tasks to extinguish wildfires in various regions of Russia,” the defense department explained.

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In addition, at the direction of the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, an operational headquarters has been set up at the National Center for Defense Management of the Russian Federation to coordinate actions to extinguish forest fires in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

“A task force of the Russian Defense Ministry is flying directly to Krasnoyarsk under the leadership of the Deputy Defense Minister of the Russian Federation, Army General Dmitry Bulgakov,” the Defense Ministry’s press release, which was available to RT, said in a press release.

Almost 3 million hectares of forest are burning

As follows from the data of the Federal Forestry Agency, as of 00:00 Moscow time, on July 31, 321 forest fires were recorded on the territory of Russia - in remote and remote areas, which covered 2,882,527 hectares of the forest fund. The territories of the Republic of Sakha (over 1.1 million hectares), the Krasnoyarsk Territory (more than 1 million hectares) and the Irkutsk Region (628 thousand hectares) suffered the most from a natural cataclysm.

“According to the fires, there is no threat to populated areas and objects of the economy, and the projected costs of extinguishing them exceed the projected damage that they can cause,” the FBU “Avialesokhrana” said in a statement.

At the same time, in addition to the regime of emergencies introduced in the four subjects of the Russian Federation, in 41 subjects there is a special fire protection regime.

In turn, the press service of the Emergencies Ministry said that in the territory of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, 381 patrol teams are working to fight forest fires, which include 771 people and 381 units of equipment. In addition, the Be-200 amphibious aircraft, the Mi-8 helicopter and the Emergencies Ministry airmobile are involved in extinguishing the fires.

“I once again draw the attention of all regional leaders, as well as the heads of municipalities: it is your responsibility, because you need to put out fires here, and not from the windows of the Ministry of Emergency Situations or the Ministry of Natural Resources,” said Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting in Krasnoyarsk on issues of combating forest fires in the regions of Siberia.

  • Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev during a meeting in Krasnoyarsk on the fight against forest fires
  • © Ekaterina Shtukina

He also pointed to the need to take systematic measures, including preparing for such situations, since forest fires are not uncommon for Russia. In this regard, Deputy Prime Minister Konstantin Chuychenko was instructed to summarize the proposals following the meeting and submit the Prime Minister for signature on Thursday, August 1.

"The most important task - I repeat it again - to prevent the spread of fire to populated areas," - said the head of the Cabinet.

Another similar meeting will be held on Monday, August 5, in the State Duma. The leader of the United Russia faction, Sergei Neverov, the heads of Duma committees, representatives of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Federal Forestry Agency, the Emergencies Ministry, the Prosecutor General’s Office and other relevant departments will take part in it.

It is planned to discuss the causes of annual large-scale forest fires, the organization of their suppression, preventive measures, as well as the need to improve legislation in this area.