Russian Soldiers Able To Freeze Sperm For Free

Igor Trunov, the chairman of the Russian Union of Lawyers, told the state news outlet Tass that the health ministry has reacted to his request for a free cryobank and revisions to the law requiring medical insurance. Following a series of failures in Ukraine, Russia called up 300,000 reserve soldiers.

Men then reportedly started approaching clinics to get their sperm frozen. On Twitter, Mr. Trunov said that his organization was making applications on behalf of a number of couples whose husbands had been called up to fight in what Russia refers to as a "special military operation" (SVO).

The health ministry has not yet responded to Mr. Trunov's comments, and the attorney told the BBC that his union will need to follow up with the department to determine the appropriate course of action. In his statement to Tass, the minister stated that the ministry has "decided the feasibility of financial support from the federal budget for free conservation and preservation of germ cells (spermatozoa) for citizens mobilized to take part in the SVO for 2022-2024."

Russia sent up to 200,000 soldiers into Ukraine in February. It has lost tens of thousands of people in addition to losing more than half of the land it controlled during the first stage of the conflict.

President Vladimir Putin announced a "partial mobilization" in September, and the number of casualties has since risen. To dodge the draft, more than 250,000 Russian men left their homeland.

The Fontanka website in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, reported a spike in men visiting IVF and fertility clinics to freeze their sperm and create paperwork allowing their wives to use it within days of the call-up.

Men preparing for the draft have come forward, according to Andrei Ivanov of the city's Mariinsky hospital. Men who were getting ready for the conscription as well as those who intended to flee Russia came forward, according to Andrei Ivanov from the city's Mariinsky hospital.

According to Fontanka, Russian men and women hardly ever visited the clinics, and they had never thought to freeze their biomaterial.

With this technique, a guy would still be able to have children even if he passed away or lost the ability to reproduce. The early rise in men visiting reproductive clinics seems to have decreased in recent weeks.

A Moscow clinic that the BBC contacted expressed skepticism that any storage quotas could be assured because they would all have been set for 2023.