Moscow offers free sperm freezing to the mobilized troops

The state news agency TASS reported on Wednesday that Russian forces who took part in a mobilization campaign for military operations in Ukraine will have the right to freeze their sperm for free in cryogenic banks.

Citing Igor Trunov, head of the Russian Lawyers’ Union, TASS reported that the Ministry of Health had responded to his appeal for budget assistance with the plan.

Trunov was quoted as saying that the ministry “has identified the possibility of obtaining financial support from the federal budget for the preservation and free storage of germ cells (sperm) of citizens mobilized to participate in the special military operation for the period 2022-2024.”

Families can also use stored vitals for free if the compulsory medical insurance indicates that they can do so.

Russia has called up more than 300,000 reservists to support what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine in a mobilization campaign that began in September.

The campaign has prompted hundreds of thousands of Russian men to flee the country to avoid conscription, and sparked the biggest anti-Kremlin protests since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February.

The war, which Ukraine and its Western allies describe as an unjustified aggression to seize territory, entered its eleventh month, after entering a slow and grinding phase with the advent of harsh winter weather.