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The Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation is trying to destroy the Wrangel Island nature reserve, UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Russia's most treasured wildlife sanctuaries, by allowing military exercises and building landfills on its territory.

Wrangel Island has some of the planet’s highest concentrations of polar bear dens, with huge numbers of female polar bears raising cubs here each winter. This is why the Island is also known as a “polar bear maternity unit and the nursery”. The reserve is extremely important for all polar bears in this local population. Due to the climate crisis, during ice-free seasons, polar bears find refuge here - a refugium for experiencing ice-free periods. Therefore, on Wrangel Island for the last decades there has been a high concentration of polar bears in late summer - early autumn, when sea ice melts as much as possible.

These northern territories are border areas and the deployment of the military has always been there. Despite the fact that it was purely formal, it did not stop them from destroying and mocking polar bears. For those who may have missed these incidents, let me remind you:

• Undermining the polar bear. The polar bear came to the position of the military. There were representatives of Spetsstroy company, Russian defence ministry contractor,  who played, took pictures with it, approached at an unsafe distance, which is contrary to all safety rules. After that, he gave the bear an explosive charge along with food.
• Mass shooting of polar bears in the Wrangel Island nature reserve. Three polar bears were shot from the air. The case was hushed up. Needless to say, it is impossible to get into this territory unnoticed, and finding the criminal by setting the time of death of the animal and comparing it with the data on the presence of aircraft in this place is elementary.
• A painted bear with the inscription "T-34" all over its body. The public did not appreciate the humor of the military, given that the paint could prevent the animal from hunting normally for a long time.
• Photos and videos from year to year of polar bears eating leftovers around Russian military installations no longer surprise even foreigners.

Today, the Russian Arctic is a graveyard of military debris and unfulfilled hopes of conquering it, but the Russian Ministry of Nature does not care about the endangered species of animals. Today, the task of the Ministry of Natural Resources is to allow the military to build training grounds throughout the reserve and conduct military exercises there that will destroy the last and most important habitat of the polar bear, which is already on the verge of extinction.

I demand that the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation stop the endless attempts to destroy the system of reserves in Russia, which is still one of the strongest in the world.