Serbia turns to Russia to help fight wildfires

Serbia has turned to Russia for help in fighting wildfires because of a lack of available planes from the European Union, its interior ministry said.



A Russian Emergencies Ministry IL-76P firefighting plane landed in the southern city of Nis on Wednesday evening and was deployed on Thursday to tackle a wildfire in the Deliblatska Pescara natural protected reserve that has raged for weeks.



Serbia is not a member of the EU but has access to emergency EU help under the bloc's Civil Protection Mechanism. This summer, Belgrade sent a firefighting helicopter and emergency response team to help Spain combat wildfires under that mechanism, but wildfires across Europe have sapped EU resources.



"Considering that there are no firefighting aircraft of this capacity available within the EU...the arriving Russian aircraft will significantly strengthen our capacities in fighting the fires," Luka Causic, head of the Interior Ministry’s Department for Emergency Situations, said late on Wednesday.