Following a second heat wave that has swept southern Europe since last week, thousands of hectares of forest have been destroyed by wildfires in the Balkans and are continuing to wreak havoc on the local population and industry.
Russia's president received an official request for assistance in extinguishing large forest fires in Serbia from the Balkan nation's prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, on Tuesday and instructed the emergencies ministry to render assistance to the country, a long-time ally of Moscow.
"An Il-76 firefighting plane left the city of Plovdiv in Bulgaria for the Serbian city of Nis to tackle large wildfires in the area," Viktor Beltsov said.
The "water bomber" has been on a firefighting mission in Bulgaria, where it released over 400 metric tons of water on fires near Stara Zagora, in the central part of the country Saturday.
Following a request from another Balkan nation, Greece, Russia has sent a Mi-26 firefighting helicopter to the country, which has also been hard-hit by the recent fires.
Greek experts said up to 40,000 hectares of forests had been affected by fires in the country so far this summer. In the provinces of Attica (southern Greece) and Boeotia (in the country's east), more than a sixth of the woodland has been destroyed.
Beltsov said a Mi-26 helicopter had been sent to an airfield near the Greek capital, Athens, early Wednesday morning. The helicopter is equipped with a special water tank with a 15-ton capacity.
The spokesman said both aircraft would remain in the affected areas until the wildfires were extinguished.
