MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry is holding command and staff exercises in the Central federal district involving a ministry’s airmobile force.

The ministry has told TASS the force consists of around 13,000 people and more than 2,600 pieces of equipment. The goal is to exercise response to major wildfires threatening villages and towns, said Oleg Bazhenov, the chief of Russian Emergencies Ministry's central regional center.

The drills are aimed at "increasing the level of protecting the citizens from dangers and threats of natural and man-caused character, using modern technologies on providing aid to people who are in the emergency area," he said.