Serbia turns to Russia to help fight wildfires
- A Russian Emergencies Ministry IL-76P firefighting plane landed in Nis on Wednesday evening and was deployed Thursday to tackle a weeks-long wildfire in the Deliblatska Pescara natural protected reserve.
- Serbia, which has access to the European Union's Civil Protection Mechanism, sought Russian aid due to a lack of available large-capacity aircraft within the bloc as wildfires across Europe sapped regional resources.
- Although Russian aircraft are generally banned from European airspace following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the flight was permitted under humanitarian exemptions and crossed Bulgarian airspace after Belgrade's specific request.
- The mission, reportedly ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, highlights Serbia's balancing act between historical ties to Russia and its stated ambition to join the EU while avoiding sanctions.
- Luka Causic, head of the Interior Ministry's Department for Emergency Situations, said late Wednesday, "the arriving Russian aircraft will significantly strengthen our capacities in fighting the fires.
21 Articles
21 Articles
A forest fire that has been raging for weeks in a vast Serbian nature reserve forced evacuations on Thursday, state media reported, with firefighters being helped by a Russian firefighting plane to extinguish the flames.
Serbia has resorted to Russia in search of help in fighting forest fires, due to the lack of aircraft available in the European Union, the Ministry of the Interior has informed. Read also: Attacks of Russia kill 17 in Ukraine; Zelensky says that lack of Patriot missiles costs lives North Korea launches series of missiles after rejecting the approach of Trump Extremely dry heat waves and causes billionary losses in Europe An IL-76P fire fighter a…
Emergency aid with major political implications: Serbia is receiving assistance from Russia in combating a massive wildfire east of the capital Belgrade. This comes despite the fact that Brussels had also offered to help the EU candidate member. Moreover, the Russian firefighting aircraft required special permission on Wednesday to fly over EU territory to Serbia. After all, the airspace over the EU is closed to Russian aircraft due to sanctions…
The fire burned more than 3,600 hectares of vegetation in the Delibatska Pescara Nature Reserve in 15 days, and another 20 fires are raging in the country.
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