A farmer in the Rostov region was fined due to a fire in the field after a drone fell.

In the Rostov region, a 64-year-old farmer was fined 60,000 rubles for the untimely removal of crop residues. The reason for the administrative fine was a fire in his field, which occurred after a downed Ukrainian drone fell.

The incident occurred during the height of the harvest campaign. The farmer had mowed wheat in one of his fields and, unable to clear the stubble, was forced to urgently move to another field to save the harvest there. Soon, a downed drone fell on the unharvested area, leading to the ignition of dry grass.

A letter from one of the subscribers was published by the Telegram channel ZERGULIO, which has over 444,000 subscribers.

"On my father's field, where wheat had previously been mowed, a Ukrainian drone fell, the field (stubble) caught fire, but the fire did not spread beyond the field, as the field was plowed around the perimeter and divided into three parts as required. The fire service arrived at the scene and quickly extinguished it," wrote a subscriber of the channel.

The material damage from the fire itself turned out to be minimal. However, a few days later, the man was summoned to the investigator. He was charged with violating fire safety rules in agriculture, namely, the untimely removal of crop residues.

"No one cares that the farmer has nothing to do with the fire that occurred, as the ignition was caused by the fallen drone, which was documented with video and photo evidence," the letter states.

The farmer tried to explain that he did not have time to clear the field because he was in a hurry to save the harvest in another area, and small farms physically do not have the resources to perform all tasks simultaneously. Nevertheless, these arguments did not convince the investigation.

The farmer's son, who helps his father run the farm, noted that to find money to pay the 60,000 ruble fine, the family needs to sell part of the grain. However, due to the high logistics load, trucks are forced to wait in line at elevators for three days or more, which critically delays the process of receiving revenue.

According to him, to pay for downtime and such absurd fines related to fires, farmers take out loans. "And then we only see on TV how once again the Ministry of Agriculture reports on how it helps small farms stay afloat," he said in his letter.

"We wrote to Putin's hotline, and in the end, your message was redirected to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Rostov region. So we returned to where we started, as the ministry already knows everything, but as everywhere else, 'We need to find someone to blame, we need money,'" concluded the son of the fined farmer in his letter.

Later, the author of the Telegram channel reported that the order, which he has in his possession, was issued by the chief state inspector for fire supervision of the Tarasovsky district.

"The Caucasian Knot" also reported that the court imposed a fine of 40,000 rubles on a pensioner from the village of Yelany, Nikolai Mukhin, for attempting to independently shoot down a Ukrainian drone flying at night past the Yelansky district. Later, the Volgograd Regional Court ruled to terminate the proceedings in the case and return the gun to the pensioner.