Russian military facing ‘severe manpower shortages’, says US

Cars pass by destroyed Russian tanks in the village of Dmytrivka, close to Kyiv, Ukraine (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

The United States has determined that Russia is suffering “severe manpower shortages” in its six-month-old war with Ukraine and has become more desperate in its efforts to find new troops to send to the front lines, according to a new American intelligence finding.

Russia is looking to address the shortage of troops in part by compelling soldiers wounded earlier in the war to return to combat, recruiting personnel from private security companies and even recruiting from prisons, according to a US official who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss the downgraded intelligence finding.