The president of RussiaVladimir Putin today offered his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, help to quell the forest fires in the south and west of Turkeythe Kremlin reported.

In the course of a telephone conversation with Erdogan, Putin “confirmed that Russia will continue to provide extensive assistance to Turkey to put out the fires,” the Russian presidency said in a statement.

The leaders stated the “importance of the interaction of both countries in the fight against this natural disaster” and addressed other matters of cooperation between Moscow and Ankara, added the press release.

Shortly after the conversation between Putin and Erdogan, the Russian Emergency Ministry announced that at the request of the Turkish authorities a group of eleven aircraft from that portfolio and the Ministry of Defense will be sent to fight forest fires in Turkey.

The worst affected region is the province of Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast, a popular destination for European and Russian tourism, where three people died on Thursday.

In total, there have been five fatalities and the fire has wiped out more than 3,000 head of cattle, destroying large areas of forest, banana plantations and agricultural land.

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