The situation with wildfires in the Russian regions remains difficult, though some stability has been noticed, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said during a meeting at the Emergencies Ministry’s Situation Room on Saturday.

According to the Emergencies Ministry’s figures on Saturday morning, some 121,500 hectares of forest are burning. There are also 18 peat bog fires, 9 of which are in the Central Federal District.

“The situation we have with wildfires remains difficult, [and] the night before last and yesterday morning we ran into some heavy consequences in some regions [but this] has stabilized a bit; however, on the whole, [the situation] remains quite intense,” Putin said.

Over the last 24 hours, over 1,000 homes have been destroyed and entire villages burned to the ground in the largest wildfire ever to hit the European part of Russia.

An emergency situation has been announced in 14 regions in Russia. Thousands of people have been left homeless.

Temperatures across much of western and central Russia have topped 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) during the past five weeks, causing peat bog and forest fires and creating what is thought to be the worst drought since 1972.

“You all know what the weather forecast is: there’s nothing to be happy about,” Putin said.

Windows to Russia!

• Raging Wildfires Kill At Least 29 In Russia (news.sky.com)
• Five killed as wildfires sweep central Russia (reuters.com)
• Russia And California Battle Deadly Wildfires (news.sky.com)
• 15 dead as forest fires rage south, east of Moscow (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Russia On Fire… (windowstorussia.com)
• Wildfires sweeping Russia kill at least 25 (reuters.com)
• Fires and Storms Kill at Least 28 in Russia (nytimes.com)
• Russian wildfires leave 25 dead, thousands homeless (cnn.com)
• Russia’s Putin visits village destroyed by forest fires that have killed at least 7 (foxnews.com)
• 20 dead as forest fires rage across Russia (msnbc.msn.com)

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