Russia's occupying forces in southern Ukraine are establishing a paramilitary guard called the Territorial Defence Force in the Zaporizhzhia region, as Moscow has done in Kherson.
The units will be tasked with guarding roads, bridges, railway tracks, factories and infrastructure objects, said administration chief Yevgeny Balitsky.
If necessary, however, the force would also be deployed "in frontline defence," Russian news agencies quoted him as saying.
Some groups already established in the Zaporizhzhia region have been merged into the defence force, Balitsky said, without naming them.
On Monday, a similar force was presented in the neighbouring Kherson region.
Moscow's imposition of martial law in these and two other areas, Luhansk and Donetsk, means men living there can be mobilized to fight in Russia's war on Ukraine.
