From January 1 to November 9, 2026, forest fires in Russia affected 5.38 million hectares, or 53.8 thousand square kilometers, according to a report by Avialesookhrana. This is 16.7% more than during the same period in 2025 and is comparable to the territory of Croatia.
As The Moscow Times reports, the fire season in Russia has not officially ended, but no new fires have been recorded since November 6. According to the report by Avialesookhrana, subordinate to Rosleskhoz, from January 1 to November 9, 2026, fire covered 5.38 million hectares, or 53.8 thousand square kilometers — 16.7% more than during the same period in 2025 and comparable to the territory of Croatia or two Belgorod regions.
The total area of landscape fires in Russia since the start of the year exceeded 11.5 million hectares. This is 1.5 times more than in the same period last year, when the authorities reported that fire had covered almost 7.7 million hectares.
The specialized Telegram channel Sky Eye noted that the average area of a single fire increased by one and a half times while the number of outbreaks remained almost unchanged: 18,991 in 2026 versus 18,868 in 2025. The channel's authors linked this to the practice of monitoring rather than extinguishing fires in “control zones”.
The area of fires in Yakutia grew the most over the year — from 0.2 million to 2.8 million hectares, and in Krasnoyarsk Krai — from 0.1 million to 1.78 million hectares. In Buryatia, the figure decreased from 1.3 million to 0.008 million hectares, and in Transbaikalia — from 3.8 million to 0.02 million hectares.
According to the head of the Department of Forestry for the Siberian Federal District, Mikhail Karnaukhov, the total area of forest fires in the Siberian Federal District increased 23-fold and amounted to 1.9 million hectares. Thus, the region became one of the main sources of the overall increase in the area of fires in the country in 2026.
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