A Ukrainian soldier died and two others were wounded in forest fires that broke out the day before in eastern Ukraine, near the front line with pro-Russian separatists, authorities said Thursday (September 3rd).
“
There is one dead and two injured in the Lugansk region.
It is our soldiers who were evacuating equipment and weapons
”from the area of the fire, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense Oleksandr Motouzianyk told AFP, while Ukraine has been affected for several days by a fire. heat wave.
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An armored vehicle and a military truck were destroyed by fire, according to a statement from this ministry A civilian also needed medical attention after being poisoned by smoke in the neighboring region of Kharkiv, where the fire spread about 500 hectares, said the Ministry of the Interior.
In this area, around 20 houses were destroyed by the flames and more than 30 people had to be evacuated, according to the same source.
Authorities have dispatched more than 500 rescue workers and firefighters, two water bombers and a helicopter to burning sites in the two regions, the state emergency service said Thursday.
In July, gigantic forest fires left five dead and around thirty injured in the Lugansk region.
Ukraine has been affected this year by several heat waves, which may have favored these fires or made them more difficult to control.
Scientific models predict that changes in the climate will lead to heatwaves, storms and also increasingly frequent natural fires.
