MOSCOW, May 26. /TASS/. The area of forest fires in Russia has grown 57% over the past 24 hours, engulfing almost 129,000 hectares, the Aerial Forest Protection Service reported on Thursday.

"As of 00:00 of May 26, 97 forest fires were fixed on the territory of the Russian Federation, covering a total area of 128,973 hectares, including 17 fires covering 81,175 hectares of forest reserves," the service reported. A day before, the area of woodland fires was 81,769 hectares.

At the same time, the area of forest fires in Siberia’s Buryatia and the Trans-Baikal region shrank to 19,300 and 11,300 hectares accordingly. However, woodland fires grew to almost 1,700 hectares in the Far Eastern Khabarovsk region, the report said.