The Christian Science Monitor takes a look at the dangers associated with the spread of Russia’s wildfires to areas still contaminated by the fallout from Chernobyl. The threat of radioactive smoke spreading across the region is a real one, say environmentalists. Meanwhile others are drawing comparisons between the Kremlin’s reaction to the current disaster and Soviet officials’ policy of denial shortly after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986.

Russian officials have denied the existence of the fires, and Russia’s chief medical officer Gennady Onishenko accused Greenpeace of “panic-mongering,” but the organization insists that its conclusion is based on solid evidence and official sources.

Russia’s state forestry service, Roslesozashchita, admitted in a statement posted on its website Wednesday that, as of Aug. 6, there were 28 forest fires covering about 270 hectares burning in the Bryansk region alone, which is considered the most radioactively contaminated part of Russia.