Everything indicates this could be a pre-planned campaign with wind direction calculation.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine does not exclude the situation with wildfires in the Chornobyl exclusion zone and Zhytomyr region could be the result of a planned sabotage.

Read alsoNASA says it sees fires near Chornobyl break out again (Satellite image)

"Now everything indicates this could be a pre-planned campaign with wind direction calculation. The goal of customers and organizers is clear: an attempt to destabilize the situation, escalate hysteria and increase panic among the population under quarantine and counteract the spread of coronavirus," adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry Zorian Shkiriak wrote on Facebook.

Shkiriak also called on Ukrainians to report the discovery of the facts and the whereabouts of the alleged arsonists and saboteurs who carry out provocations with arson in forest zones.

In several spots outside Kyiv, including northwest of the city – in Zhytomyr region and the Chornobyl exclusion zone – wildfires broke out on Thursday, April 16.