Kazakhstan has granted Russia's Emergencies Ministry permission to extinguish wildfires on the Kazakh-Russian border and in Kazakhstan, the ministry's information services said on Wednesday.
Earlier on Wednesday, wildfires crossed the Russian-Kazakh border and destroyed the village of Nikolayevka in the Altai Territory. According to preliminary information, 443 homes have already been completely destroyed and 1,166 people were evacuated from the village.
"Kazakhstan has granted the request by Russia's Emergencies Ministry to use aircraft in the border regions to extinguish the wildfires," the ministry said.
Work is to begin on Thursday morning.
According to the press center of the Emergencies Ministry's Siberian branch, an additional six Russian regions are under threat from wildfires ravaging in Kazakhstan.
"The fires are not being extinguished from the side of the Republic of Kazakhstan," the ministry's Siberian branch reported.
Several villages near the border with Kazakhstan have been evacuated or are being prepared for evacuation.
MOSCOW/NOVOSIBIRSK, September 8 (RIA Novosti)
