Russian troops who have been mobilised for the ongoing war in Ukraine will have the right to freeze their sperm for free in cryobanks.
On Wednesday, Moscow’s state news agency TASS reported that Igor Trunov, president of the Russian Union of Lawyers, made an appeal to the country’s health ministry.
The report said that the ministry responded to his appeal for budgetary assistance with the plan.
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”, Mr Trunov was quoted as saying.
Families can also use the stored biomaterial free of charge if their compulsory medical insurance indicates they can do so.
The move comes as Russia’s war in Ukraine entered its eleventh month.
On 24 February Russian president Vladimir Putin had announced a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Tens of thousands of Russian men have been mobilised for operations in Ukraine since then.
More than 300,000 reservists were called in under a mobilisation drive launched in September which led hundreds of thousands of Russian men to flee from the country to avoid being conscripted.
It also sparked the largest anti-Kremlin protests since Russia sent in its troops into Ukraine earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Russian forces fired 33 rockets at civilian targets in the Ukrainian city of Kherson in the 24 hours to early on Wednesday, according to Ukraine’s military said.
In his late night address on Tuesday Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenksy said a meeting of the military command had “established the steps to be taken in the near future”.
“We will continue preparing the armed forces and Ukraine’s security for next year. This will be a decisive year. We understand the risks of winter. We understand what needs to be done in the spring,” he said.
(Additional reporting by agencies)
