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You may be right, I just did some digging to double check. Sources like this: ria.ru/20230519/armiya-… stated ~117,400 of both 'contract *and* volunteer' had joined around May.
I think what tripped me up was the previous report which I also had pasted into the last Sitrep:
“In just ten days of the current month, 13,644 Russians 🇷🇺 signed…
You may be right, I just did some digging to double check. Sources like this: https://ria.ru/20230519/armiya-1872971553.html stated ~117,400 of both 'contract *and* volunteer' had joined around May.
I think what tripped me up was the previous report which I also had pasted into the last Sitrep:
“In just ten days of the current month, 13,644 Russians 🇷🇺 signed up for contract Military service,” Deputy Defense Minister of Russia Nikolai Pankov said.
“This is 2.1 times more than in May this year and 3.1 times higher than in April.”
They also confirmed 117,400 people volunteered to join the Russian army ranks since January 2023."
This uses the language 'volunteers' but it actually means both combined.
However, even if that's the case, and the number now is 156k total of both, that does not change the calculus "quite significantly" as you state. Sure, the extra 150k I added is a huge number. However, even with that subtracted that should put them at 600k+ total rather than the 750k I had. This 600k total still wildly dwarfs what the AFU should currently have, so to me that should still be a very large disparity.
Plus, as per the above, it appears that each month the number of recruits is growing as they said "2x more than May and 3x more than April". This is in reference to the ~14k that joined this month. That would mean April and May had about 4k and 7k that joined, respectively.
If we extrapolate this out, and each month goes something like 4k, 7k, 14k, ~20k, etc. That could mean that by the end of 2023 there would be an additional 100k+ troops. Even if it stays at 14k per month joining, there are 6 months left so 14 x 6 = 85k. So that means by early next year, we could already be near that missing number anyway, i.e. the 150k that I wrongfully added. Let's say we add another few months of next year which also see 15-20k monthly recruitment. That means by next March or so, it can be an additional 150k which would put it right back to the 750k I had envisioned.
Of course, AFU is also recruiting in this time, but as I said the recruits they're getting are being attrited much faster so it's not certain their number is actually rising at all.