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Russian fire fighters battled wildfires in Siberia this week as authorities declared a state of emergency in seven of the country's federal districts.

Working with helicopters and on the ground, firefighters tackled blazes that Russia's Federal Forestry Agency's press service has said were mainly caused by burning grass for agricultural purposes.

On Monday (June 25) Russian authorities announced a state of emergency in Russia's Tyva Republic, the Khanty-Mansiisk autonomous district, the Sakha Republic, Amur, Krasnoyarsk, Zabaikalsky and Sakhalin regions, due to the fires.

The head of Greenpeace Russia's wildfire program, Grigory Kuksin, said that the fires were more severe in terms of land ravaged than 2010, when drought-aggravated blazes killed dozens and doubled the death rate in the capital Moscow by blanketing it in toxic smoke.

Russia's 2010 wild fires destroyed crops, causing the country to lose billions of dollars of gross domestic product.