The Russian authorities are planning to mobilise at least 300,000 people in the near future to launch an operation to surround Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv.
Source. This was reported by the Russian opposition publication Verstka, citing four informed sources.
"The next step in the plan is Kharkiv with the preservation of the city. And this is possible only if it is surrounded. We need 300 thousand people. That's why everything is ready for mobilisation 2.0," a source in the internal political unit of the presidential administration told the publication.
According to him, "no one wants to turn Kharkiv into a second Mariupol", so "there is an idea" to make it a showcase of how Russians "know how to fight in a civilised manner".
The need to mobilise 300,000 people was confirmed by a source in one of the structures of the Western Military District of the Russian Federation. The source noted that recruitment to the front could begin as early as 25 March.
The first to be taken to war in Ukraine will be reservists – men who are in the reserve but have signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence to be included in the mobilisation human reserve. There are about two million of them in Russia.
"Something is happening. Reservists are being recruited now, just like before the mobilisation. I don't know if it will happen or not, but last time the procedure was the same," commented an officer of a military unit in the Trans-Baikal region.
Background. As a reminder, French President Macron has warned of the threat of Ukraine's "very quick" defeat in the war without radical measures.