Local authorities say eight people have been killed and ten have been injured in a forest fire east of Ukraine.
Firefighters have so far extinguished 82 of the 146 active fires threatening 22 settlements.
Over 120 people were forced to evacuate as flames engulfed 9,300 hectares of residential land.
The cause of the fires isn't yet known, but authorities on the ground believe artillery shelling by Russian-back separatists, fighting over Crimea, might have caused the flames.
Ukrainian forces, along with Nato allies, have been fighting over the former Ukrainian city that Russia annexed in 2014. So far more 13,000 Ukrainians have died since fighting erupted six years ago.
The office of the president has partially ruled out the possibility of climate change being a factor and has called on law enforcement officers to quickly investigate the origins of the fires.
By: Niza Nondo
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