Moscow awoke on July 26 to a thick haze from surrounding forest and peat fires amid a continuing heat wave.
The Emergency Situations Ministry says that in the area around the Russian capital, 34 peat fires and 26 forest fires were burning this morning.
The ministry appealed to residents and holidaymakers to stay away from forests, saying they are unsafe.
Reuters reports that wisps of smoke enveloped the domes of the Kremlin as the haze crept across large swathes of the city. The heat wave that has destroyed Russian crops over an area the size of Portugal shows no sign of abating.
(Reuters)