Fires in Russia spread to 3 million hectares of forest in the spring of 2025

In the spring alone, fires have burned through almost 3 million hectares of forest in Russia. This was announced to Izvestia on June 20 on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2025) by the head of the Federal Forestry Agency, Ivan Sovetnikov.

"To be honest, it was the difficult part. The fires started early, and the Trans-Baikal Territory was actively burning in April. If you look at the bare numbers, then we don't have very good data on the numbers. The area covered by fire, primarily by runaway grassroots fires, is almost 3 million hectares," he noted.

According to him, in the spring of this year, the fire passed through a larger area than last year. At the same time, 98% of the area was in three districts of Transbaikalia and two districts of Buryatia. Advisers stressed that the Chita region of the Trans-Baikal Territory is quite remote and difficult to access, where there are also few settlements and roads. He noted that the fire area turned out to be large, as the fire was burning through sparse woodlands and litter.

In addition, the head of the Federal Forestry Agency said that the final results of the fire-affected area will be known in 2026 after clarifying part of the scorched area. He clarified that the causes of the fires lie in the heat and dry weather. Advisers noted that there had been no rains in Transbaikalia and Buryatia for a month and a half.

"The weather is dry and windy, someone is burning garbage, someone is burning fields, someone is using faulty equipment to go into the forest. Or, as we had a case, the locomotive was moving, but there was no plowing along the road, and we got a forest fire. As a species, as a society, we need to work on ourselves and prevent violations of fire safety rules in forests," he concluded.

Future fogs: forest fires in June may break out in almost 40 regions

In addition to the hot weather, there is a lack of moisture after a snowy winter, experts say.

The Forestry Agency of Buryatia reported on June 8 that local fire services had recorded 16 active fires with a total area of over 101 thousand hectares. At that time, 16 forest fires were reported in Barguzinsky, Bauntovsky, Evenki, Yeravninsky, Zaigraevsky, Zakamensky, Kizhinginsky and Selenginsky districts.