Siberian forests burn as wildfires rage across eastern Russia

Eastern Siberian forests have been blazing with wildfires for the past one month with hundreds of firefighters and dozens of vehicles deployed to tackle the blazes.

Up to 27,000 wildfires occur in Siberia every year, covering areas of up to 18 million hectares, according to environmental specialists.

The country's emergency officials ahve stated that they are “continuously monitoring the flames” from the fires, as several settlements across the region were reported to be blanketed in smoke.

Russia's largest and coldest region, the republic of Sakha, annually witnesses summer wildfires, but these occurrences have becomes more severe in recent years as Russia's Arctic regions warm more than twice as fast as the global average.

This is because most of the fires are burning in so-called “control zones,” or areas where regional authorities are not required by law to extinguish them because there is no direct threat to residential areas or economically important infrastructure.

Since the beginning of this year’s wildfire season, more than 700 wildfires have been registered in Sakha, impacting a total area of 1.2 million hectares, according to Avialesookhrana, a branch of Russia’s Federal Forest Agency.

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