According to the Russian state news agency TASS, soldiers from Russia who have been sent to fight in Ukraine will have the right to have their sperm frozen in cryobanks for free.
TASS reported on Wednesday that the Russian health ministry had reacted to Igor Trunov’s request for financial support for soldiers who want to use such services. Trunov is the head of the Russian Union of Lawyers.
The ministry “determined the possibility of financial support from the federal budget for free conservation and storage of germ cells (spermatozoa) for citizens mobilized to participate in the special military operation for 2022-2024”, Trunov was quoted as saying
BBC’s Russian correspondent Steve Rosenberg reported at the time that reports of an increase in demand for sperm freezing first appeared in October in a report in Russia’s Moskovskij Komsomolets newspaper, which claimed that after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilization to support the war in Ukraine, there had been a surge in sperm freezing.
“In the past, it was people with chronic illnesses who were the main customers. Now it’s healthy men freezing their sperm, in case something happens to them so that they can have the guaranteed possibility to become fathers,” Rosenberg cited the newspaper as reporting.
