Russian drones and aerial bombs have scorched over 42 hectares of Ukrainian forests in week. PHOTOS
Russian attacks have been the main cause of forest fires in Ukraine over the past week. Debris from enemy UAVs, strikes by guided munitions and FPV drones have caused fires across more than 42 hectares of forest – this accounts for more than three-quarters of the total area affected by fires within the forest holdings of the State Enterprise ‘Forests of Ukraine’.
According to Censor.NET, this information has been provided by the State Enterprise "Forests of Ukraine".
78 fires in a week
In total, 78 fires were recorded across the enterprise’s forest holdings during the week, covering 55.4 hectares.
The largest number of fires were extinguished by foresters in the Chernihiv region – 24 fires covering an area of almost 12 hectares. In the Kyiv region, there were even more individual fires – 33, with a total area of 10.1 hectares.
Due to Russian attacks, forests were also ablaze in the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Volyn and Mykolaiv regions.
In the current weather conditions, dry grass, leaves, pine needles and small twigs catch fire from the slightest spark, and the wind can quickly spread the fire over a large area.
In the Rivne region, nearly 10 hectares of forest caught fire from a rubbish tip
Not all the fires were caused by Russian strikes. In the Rivne region over the weekend, strong winds carried the fire from a local rubbish tip into the territory of the Sosnivskyi Forest District.
The flames engulfed 9.7 hectares of forest. Units from the State Emergency Service were called in to extinguish the blaze. The fire has already been contained, but work to fully extinguish it is ongoing.
Minor fires were also reported in the Lviv, Zakarpattia, Cherkasy and Zhytomyr regions. The causes are still being investigated.
Large-scale fire covering 2,500 hectares
Forest fire crews also helped extinguish fires on the land of other forest users. In particular, staff from several regions joined efforts to tackle a large-scale fire in the Dnipro-Teteriv State Forestry and Hunting Enterprise, which covered an area of around 2,500 hectares.
The state enterprise‘Forests of Ukraine’ notes that its forest protection units detected fires within minutes, and on average took between 30 and 60 minutes to contain a single fire. The average area of such a fire last week did not exceed 0.7 hectares.
Hot and dry weather and an extreme fire risk are forecast across almost the whole of Ukraine in the coming days. "Forests of Ukraine" has urged people to refrain from visiting forests.
