MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. Russian regions have begun recruiting volunteers to protect critical civilian facilities, regional and municipal authorities told TASS.

In mid-October, the first volunteer coalition was formed in the Nizhny Novgorod Region to serve in the Bars-NN mobilization reserve. Initially, all volunteers will get fire, tactical, engineering, and medical training, as well as education on the basics of electronic warfare, control and communications.

According to the Nizhny Novgorod Region government, volunteers can combine their regular jobs with the training. They are provided with a monetary allowance, and their job and salary will be waiting for them when they return from military camps.

"Service as part of the Bars-NN reserve does not provide for deployment to a special military operation zone and takes place only in the region," a spokesperson for the government said. On November 1, the first group of the Bars-NN mobilization reserve went on combat duty to protect and defend important energy and infrastructure facilities. Andrey Gneushev, Deputy Governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, is also one of the volunteers.

Recruitment of volunteers has also started in the Tambov Region. Reservists are currently being actively recruited in the city of Kotovsk.

"To boost the security of life supporting facilities and the well-being of citizens, we are selecting the most prepared and patriotic citizens to carry out measures to protect civilian facilities," a spokesperson for the Kotovsk administration told TASS. The duration of reservists' participation in mobile groups is 60 days, 15 of which are spent preparing for tasks.

Requirements for reservists

Reservists are being recruited in the Yaroslavl Region to protect the oil refinery in Yaroslavl from drone attacks, the administrations of the Danilovsky and Lyubimsky municipal districts say on VKontakte.

"Due to the increased threat of damage to critical infrastructure and residential areas in the regions of the Russian Federation from the increasingly frequent strikes by long-range drones of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has opened a recruitment of trained and patriotic citizens in mobile firing groups to protect the oil refinery in Yaroslavl. The task will be to protect the fuel and the plant from UAV attacks," the report says.

A reservist must be under 52, have no criminal record and be in good health. Preparatory work on the creation of a unit to protect critical facilities is underway in the Oryol and Samara Regions, spokespeople for the governments told TASS.

There are no plans to form additional units for the protection of strategic facilities and infrastructure in the Belgorod Region. This work is currently being carried out by the soldiers of the Bars-Belgorod detachment, the regional government said. Volunteer unit "BARS 39" has been created in the Kaliningrad Region, which will be involved in the protection of critical facilities in the region.

Federal legislation

On November 4, President Vladimir Putin signed a law on attracting citizens who have signed a contract to stay in the reserve of the armed forces to get training to protect critical facilities. The law applies to the citizens who voluntarily signed a contract to stay in the reserve.

The innovations provide that, on the basis of the decree, reservists can be sent to special training camps to protect critical facilities, life support facilities, including energy and transport facilities. Participants in special training camps receive all the social guarantees provided for participants in military training camps.