As closed city prepares for construction of new reactor, one scientist calls for an inquiry to address environmental concerns of past 50 years.

New statistics on Saturday showed the vast scale of the human effort in Russia to halt a natural disaster that has destroyed swathes of woodland and taiga.

One region alone - Yakutia - has 5 million tons scrap metal dumped in polar regions, an ugly Soviet legacy.

Recent reports showed 89 wildfires in Siberia and 25 in the Russian Far East as a new season of damage to forests gets underway.

Sea creatures in ‘Whale Jail’ are ‘trapped’ under ice amid growing concern over their fate.

Arctic permafrost is degrading much faster than expected, warn scientists from the extreme north of Yakutia.

‘Taiga burning’ - as scared bears are driven out of their natural habitat towards settlements where they are shot as danger to people.

Six infernos ravaging the region's nature have been extinguished in the past 24 hours, it is reported.