Spokesman Hogan Gidley said Trump talked to Putin on Wednesday “and expressed concern over the vast wildfires afflicting Siberia,” Reuters reported.
“The leaders also discussed trade between the two countries,” he said in a brief statement.
Russia has declared a state of emergency in five regions in Siberia after a million people signed petitions demanding that the government does something about the unprecedented wildfires.
Three million hectares of forest are burning and 12 million have already been destroyed, according to the Financial Times. Smoke from the wildfires is blowing over some cities, including Novosibirsk, Russia’s third-largest. People in the worst affected regions say the smoke is blotting out the sun and making it hard to breathe.