Russia’s largest firefighting aircraft, Ilyushin Il-76, has arrived to Serbia to assist in extinguishing wildfires, a spokesman for the Russian emergencies ministry said on Sunday.
“At 16:30 Moscow time [12:30 GMT] the Il-76 aircraft landed in the Serbian city of Nis,” the source said.
This aircraft will be used to fight fires in more complex spots in hilly areas, where there are explosives left and where it could be difficult to send in fire-engines.
Russian firefighting aircraft have been deployed to southern Europe to help fight increasingly damaging blazes triggered by a spell of very hot weather in the region.
Emergency Ministry foreign activity spokesman Yury Brazhnikov earlier said there were at least 200 wildfires blazing in Serbia alone, and the situation is complicated by the high air temperatures and dry forests.
Russia has already deployed a a Kamov Ka-32 firefighter helicopter and a Beriev Be-200 amphibian firefighter at Serbia’s Nis airbase.