Russia: forest fires in the east, heavy rain in the south

Russia is currently struggling with two natural disasters: While millions of hectares of forest are in flames in Yakutia, heavy rain is causing floods in the south of the country.

The current extent of the natural disasters in Russia is unprecedented, said Russian President Vladimir Putin in a special meeting with the governors of all affected provinces. “All of this shows us once again how important it is to systematically tackle climate and environmental issues,” he emphasized, and was informed in turn about the situation in the regions. Because currently the largest country in the world is struggling with extreme weather and its consequences on several fronts.

In the morning, Russia’s forest protection authority announced that more than four and a half million hectares of forest were currently on fire. By far the hardest hit is the Sakha republic in the Far East, known as Yakutia, followed by the Irkutsk region around Lake Baikal. Most of the fires rage in uninhabited areas and are therefore not extinguished, but the smoke that is generated travels thousands of kilometers through the country and into neighboring countries.

Environmentalists speak of “historic proportions”

“The residents of Yakutsk are even worse off than the residents of Moscow during the peat fires in 2010: The phenomenon has been going on for them for much longer, they cannot escape and in places the smoke is even thicker,” said Grigori Kuksin of Greenpeace Russia on the radio station Swoboda put the situation together. He, too, already speaks of a “historical extent” of the forest fires: The area destroyed is soon in danger of surpassing the negative record set in 2012, when 17 million hectares burned down in Russia.

In view of the disaster, Putin made the fight against the forest fires a top priority: he sent civil protection minister Yevgeny Sinichev to Yakutia and put the fire fighting operations there under his command. Yakutia’s governor Ajsen Nikolayev was meek in the crisis meeting with Putin – he announced a press conference that would be soon.

Heavy rain in the south

While Yakutia continues to hope for rain, heavy continuous rain has led to floods in southern Russia, on the Russian-annexed Crimea and around the Amur River. Putin said the amount of precipitation there had fallen within a few hours for a month. Part of the highway bridge that leads from mainland Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula was under water. In the city of Novorossiysk, streets and cars sank in the floods, and in the surrounding villages the power went out from time to time. Around 1,300 emergency services are currently fighting the floods in southern Russia.

Putin called on the authorities to do everything possible to save the lives of the people in the affected regions. In other regions, the worst is yet to come, according to the disaster control minister Sinichev: “A tidal wave is currently crossing the Amur region. In the Yevreysky region and the Khabarovsk region there will be floods in the coming days. During the flood there is a flood expected from up to 1200 residential buildings. “

Local disaster control has already called on people to bring their belongings from low-lying areas to safety and not to drive to rivers or to places that are difficult to access.