Russia is struggling to attract recruits for its army amid its setbacks in Ukraine, while the US is open to potentially sending western tanks to Kyiv, a senior US defence official said on Monday.

“The Russians are performing so poorly that the news from Kharkiv province has inspired many Russian volunteers to refuse combat,” the official said, who was not authorised to speak publicly about the status of Russia’s war in Ukraine, adding that the leader of the Wagner Group, a private military company with ties to the Kremlin, had been seen in videos posted on social media asking Russian prisoners, Tajiks, Belarusians and Armenians to join the fight in Ukraine.

“We believe this is part of Wagner’s campaign to recruit over 1,500 convicted felons,” the official said. “But many are refusing.” Last week, a video posted online and analysed by The New York Times showed the Wagner Group promising convicts that they would be released from prison in return for a six-month combat tour in Ukraine.

It is unclear when the video was filmed. The official added that Russia was failing in its own strategic objectives, noting that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia reiterated last week that the “main goal” of his invasion was limited to capturing the Donbas — the eastern Ukrainian region where Russia has recognised as independent two Kremlin-backed statelets but where Ukraine still controls several key cities and towns.

And, at a regional summit in Uzbekistan on Friday, Putin said Russia was committed to its “special military operation,” despite Russian losses in the northeast and Ukraine’s offensive in the south, near the port city of Kherson. Furthermore, Ukrainian forces now control all of their territories west of the Oskil river in eastern Ukraine, the official said, and have liberated more than 300 settlements in Kharkiv province.

New York Times News Service