Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Friday that about 1 million people are participating in defending Ukraine, the government-run Ukrinform news agency reported.

Some 700,000 soldiers of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, 100,000 officers of the National Police, 90,000 members of the National Guard, and 60,000 border guards are involved in the activities of the security and defense sector in Ukraine, Reznikov said.

Ukraine is interested in attracting more investment in its military-industrial complex and creating joint ventures with partners to meet the needs of the defense forces, the minister said.

Due to the conflict with Russia, Ukraine has become a kind of “huge training facility” where new types of weapons and innovative solutions are used, Reznikov noted.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister on Sunday urged civilians in the Russian-occupied southern region of Kherson to urgently evacuate as Ukraine’s armed forces were preparing a counter-attack there.

Ukraine lost control of most of the Black Sea region of Kherson, including its eponymous capital, in the first weeks after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.

“It’s clear there will be fighting, there will be artillery shelling… and we therefore urge (people) to evacuate urgently,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on national television.

She said she could not say when exactly the counter-offensive would happen.

“I know for sure that there should not be women and children there, and that they should not become human shields,” she said.

Kherson’s Russian-installed authorities say they want to hold a referendum on seceding to Russia, but they have not yet set a date. The Kremlin says the future of the region should be determined by its residents.

The Kherson region includes the city of Kherson, which before the war had a population of nearly 300,000. It is not known how many of the city’s residents are still there.