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

At least three are dangerously close to population centres in Irkutsk region.

Russia’s coldest region struggles to tame fires intensified by lengthy heatwave in extreme north.

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.

Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk suffering smoke pollution and infernos rage in forests after hot, dry weather.

Roads blocked, planes diverted due to low visibility, schools shut, people advised to stay home.

Thousands of hectares of land ablaze with no signs of a let-up.

Forest infernos will be extinguished by the weekend, pledges government, as wildfires become political issue in Moscow.

Plane schedules disrupted, residents warned to stay indoors, sailors had to use GPS to get back to land because of thick smoke fumes from raging forest fires.