Russian soldiers, called to fight in Ukraine, use the opportunity to store frozen sperm in a cryobank for free, because they will not return home.
The head of the Russian Union of Lawyers, Igor Trunov, told the state news agency TASS that the Ministry of Health responded to his request for a free cryobank and changes to mandatory medical insurance.
According to reports, men have started turning to clinics to freeze their sperm.
Mr Trunov said on Twitter that his union was applying on behalf of several couples whose husbands had been called up to take part in a special military operation (SVO) – the term Russia uses for its war in Ukraine.
The Ministry of Health has not yet commented on Mr. Trunov’s remarks.
He told TASS that the ministry “identified the possibility of financial support from the federal budget for the free preservation and storage of germ cells (sperm) of citizens mobilized to participate in the SVO for 2022-2024.”
In February, Russia invaded Ukraine with up to 200,000 troops. It not only lost more than half of the territory it occupied at the initial stage of the war, but also suffered tens of thousands of casualties.
President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial mobilization” in September, and casualties continue to mount. More than 250,000 Russian men left the country to avoid conscription.
A few days after the call, the Fontanka website in Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg, reported a sharp increase in the number of men turning to IVF and infertility clinics to freeze their sperm and obtain documents that would give them the right to use it. use.
Andriy Ivanov from the city’s Mariinsky Hospital reported that people who were preparing for the draft, as well as those who planned to leave Russia, volunteered.
Russian men and women rarely went to clinics “just in case”, Fontanka reports, and never before thought of freezing their biological material.
However, the ruling meant that if a man died – or lost his ability to reproduce – he would still be able to have children.
