According to TASS, the country's state-run news agency, Russian servicemen who have been called up to fight in Ukraine will be allowed to have their sperm preserved in cryobanks at no charge.
Igor Trunov, the leader of the Russian Union of Lawyers, requested financial assistance so that military members may obtain medical care, and the Russian health ministry responded, according to TASS on Wednesday.
For free conservation and preservation of germ cells (spermatozoa) for people mobilised to participate in the extraordinary military operation for 2022–2024, the ministry "examined the prospect of financial support from the federal budget," Trunov continued.
After suffering several losses and setbacks during its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has called up more than 300,000 reservists to continue its gruelling military effort there.
Rumours of an increase in sperm freezing reportedly started to spread in October after the Russian newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets reported that demand had increased after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation to support the war in Ukraine. According to the BBC's Russian correspondent Steve Rosenberg.
In the past, folks with chronic illnesses tended to be our frequent customers. Now, according to the newspaper and Rosenberg, "healthy men preserve their sperm, in case something occurs to them so that they can have the assured potential to become dads."
According to a November estimate by US General Mark Milley, approximately 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or injured since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began in February. The Kyivan military had "probably" suffered a similar number of casualties, he continued.
The effects of Moscow's mobilisation effort included anti-Kremlin demonstrations and a large-scale exodus of young men seeking to avoid conscription.