MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry plans to set up a rescue center in the Zaporozhye Region to protect potentially hazardous facilities including the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, Minister Alexander Kurenkov said on Wednesday.

"Given the risk of emergencies at potentially hazardous facilities, such as the Zaporozhye NPP, a decision was made to establish a Russian Emergency Situations Ministry rescue center in the Zaporozhye Region" he told the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian legislature.

The ministry had expanded its staff by 15,000 employees to set up branches in the new Russian regions. The ministry’s total headcount now stands at 303,000.

Also, a regional rescue center has been built and put into operation in Mariupol. More than 800 rescuers are serving there. Paramilitary mountain rescue units employing a total of 2,500 people have been set up in the Lugansk and Donetsk people's republics.