A Russian weather monitor said Monday that forest fires ravaging Siberia are worsening as NASA satellite images showed smoke from its burning forests reaching the North Pole.

Devastating forest fires have ripped across Siberia with increasing regularity over the past few years, which Russia's weather officials and environmentalists have linked to climate change and an underfunded forest service.

UN climate experts Monday published a report that shows unequivocally that global warming is unfolding more quickly than feared and that humanity is almost entirely to blame.

One of Siberia's hardest-hit regions this year has been Yakutia — Russia's largest and coldest region that sits atop permafrost — which has seen record-high temperatures and drought.

Russia's weather monitoring institute Rosgidromet said Monday that the situation in the region — also known as Sakha — "continues to deteriorate".

According to Rosgidromet, close to 3.4 million hectares (8.4 million acres) are currently burning in the region, including areas that are "difficult to access and remote".

On Saturday, US space agency NASA said its satellite images showed wildfire smoke travelling "more than 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) from Yakutia to reach the North Pole", calling it "a first in recorded history".

It added that on August 6 "most of Russia" was covered in smoke.

Environmentalists blame the authorities for letting large areas burn every year under a law that allows them not to intervene if the cost of fighting fires is greater than the damage caused or if they do not affect inhabited areas.

According to Russia's forestry agency, this year's fires have ravaged over 14 million hectares, making it the second-worst fire season since the turn of the century.

The head of Greenpeace Russia's forest programme, Alexei Yaroshenko, linked the growing area of Russia's wildfires with the effects of climate change as well as the "continuing decline of state forest management".

EU countries boost fire-fighting help to Greece
Brussels (AFP) Aug 9, 2021 –

EU countries are stepping up their help to Greece to fight forest fires devastating its mainland and some islands, the European Commission said on Monday as it coordinated the assistance.

There are now nine planes, 1,000 firefighters and 200 vehicles deployed by European Union states, a statement said.

France, Germany, Poland, Austria and Slovakia added resources and were sending extra fire fighting units, adding to ones already in Greece from France and other EU nations.

In addition, EU help has gone to battle fires that are also burning in Italy as well as in neighbouring non-EU countries North Macedonia, Albania and Turkey, the commission said.

"We are mobilising one of Europe's biggest ever common firefighting operations as multiple fires affect several countries simultaneously," the EU commission for crisis management, Janez Lenarcic, said.

"I am very thankful to all the countries who have offered help for their tangible solidarity. Our thoughts are with all those affected and with the first responders who are risking their lives to battle the fires."