A conference to plan the joint international exercise of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine and the Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) to respond to emergencies, "Ukraine 2015," is being held in Lviv.

"The event took place in the format of a plenary meeting. During the sitting, the participants discussed the main scenario, services' schedule, provided instructions on conducting training and discussed time indices for teams to come and participate," reads a statement issued by the press service of the Emergency Service on Thursday.

According to Director of the Emergency Response Department at the Service, Hryhoriy Marchenko, "during the discussion we planned the joint exercise, where Ukrainian rescuers would work together with their foreign colleagues on eliminating an emergency in real conditions."

He said that nearly 600 rescuers and 200 pieces of equipment from 30 countries are planned to be used the exercise.

In turn, Head of EADRCC Guenter Bretschneider thanked the Ukrainian representatives for his organization being invited to the exercise. He said that this will be the third time EADRCC has cooperated with Ukrainian colleagues and his organization is happy to return.

He said that some countries have already announced the participation of their teams in the training, and other participants are expected to confirm their participation soon. These teams will work together with Ukrainian rescuers despite the different languages and training standards.

The Ukrainian Emergency Service said the international exercise will be held as part of the annual national program of Ukraine-NATO cooperation for 2015 to deepen the cooperation of NATO and Ukrainian Emergency Service in civil protection of the population and procedures on preventing and responding to natural and anthropogenic emergencies.