Putin, Trump hold talks over phone

Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks by phone with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump, the Kremlin said Wednesday.

During the conversation, which was initiated by the U.S. side, Trump offered U.S. assistance in battling wildfires in Siberia, which Putin said Moscow would accept if necessary, the Kremlin press service said in a statement on the presidential website.

Putin informed Trump that a large air group has been deployed to the area to speed up the process of extinguishing the fires, the statement said.

"The Russian president assessed this step on the part of the U.S. president as a guarantee that in the future it will be possible to restore full-scale relations between the two countries. The presidents of Russia and the United States agreed to continue contacts both over the phone and in person," it said.

Wildfires in the dense Siberian forests have spread to about 3 million hectares, prompting a high alert.

The situation is particularly dangerous in the Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk regions of the hinterland where the fire has spread close to residential areas.

Putin has instructed the Defense Ministry to assist in firefighting efforts.

The fires were first detected in March and then May, but they gradually got out of control due to the dry summer.