Russia is considering the possibility of attracting 300,000 soldiers for a new offensive to capture the city of Kharkiv, writes the independent Russian investigative publication Viorstka, citing sources in the Kremlin, the Ministry of Defense and regional governments.

“We are 300,000 people short, so everything is ready for ‘mobilization 2.0,'” a Kremlin source quoted by The Moscow Times told Viorstka.

“Next in the plan is Kharkiv with (the intention of) preserving the city. This is possible only in case of encirclement,” the source said, asserting that Moscow seeks not to turn Kharkiv into a “second Mariupol” and to show that Russia “knows how to fight in a civilized manner.”

An anonymous Defense Ministry source confirmed a recruitment target of 300,000 for Viorstka and suggested March 25 as a key date for those plans, without giving further details.

President Vladimir Putin has announced a “partial” mobilization of 300,000 reservists in September 2022, months after ordering a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The mobilization forced thousands of Russians to leave the country and sparked some protests.

A month later, he announced the end of the conscription campaign, but did not formalize its end in writing, that is, Russia is legally still mobilizing.

This year, writes Viorstka, Russian authorities will try to achieve their goal with a series of recruitment strategies without officially announcing a new mobilization campaign.

“Last time it was indiscriminate and harsh, so now the authorities will probably try a soft and gradual mobilization, through conscripts, students, trained specialists and so on,” political scientist Ilya Graschenkov told the publication.

The draft plans will come after the March 15-17 presidential election, which Putin won with more than 87 percent of the vote, according to official results. International observers and Russian critics accused the election of massive fraud.

But even such a large reserve of support does not give the Kremlin “free rein” to start a new mobilization campaign, Graschenkov told Viorstka, suggesting that such a move would cause a negative reaction throughout Russian society.

Recent Russian gains in eastern Ukraine have come at a huge human cost, according to Western assessments, and some sources have suggested for months that Moscow may have to launch a new round of mobilization.

But no official announcement was made.

Bryn Rosenfeld, a Cornell University professor who studies post-communist politics, hinted at this when he told the Associated Press that Putin was only giving Russians bad news after the election.

However, Tetiana Stanova, an expert at the Carnegie Russia Eurasian Center, also suggested to the Associated Press that it is quite possible that additional mobilization will not be needed. Explanation: Many Russians from poor regions have already voluntarily joined the army to receive high salaries.

In a speech on Sunday after his election victory, Putin said he was considering creating a “buffer zone” in the Kharkiv region to stop increased attacks and incursions into Russia’s western border regions. The Kremlin confirmed the existence of such a plan.

Kyiv criticized the Russian leader’s comments as a sign that he is seeking to escalate the war.