Russian troops sent to Ukraine given opportunity to freeze sperm

Russian troops mobilised to fight in Ukraine will be offered sperm freezing and fertility treatment, it has been announced.

Increasing numbers of men in Russia had been taking the opportunity to freeze sperm in recent months, after it was announced in September that a further 300,000 reservists would be called up to fight the war in Ukraine. Russian Union of Lawyers head Igor Trunov announced the service would be offered to troops, following his request that the ministry of health provide sperm freezing facilities to citizens fighting in the war.

The ministry had 'determined the possibility of financial support from the federal budget for free conservation and storage of germ cells (spermatozoa) for citizens mobilised to take part in the SVO for 2022-2024'. Trunov told state news agency Tass. The government will also fund 'a free quota for infertility treatment,' Trunov said. He also posted the first part of the letter on his Twitter account, although the section that includes the actual response text is cut off.

The move offers Russian men another potential incentive to fight in a war against Ukraine. An initial invasion with 200,000 troops in February was followed by a mobilisation of a further 300,000 in September, while an estimated quarter of a million men fled the country to avoid the draft.

Both men who have been mobilised and those trying to leave to avoid involvement in the conflict have increasingly been enquiring about sperm freezing and drawing up documents to allow for its use by their wives, St Petersburg publication Fontanka reported in October 2022. While these services are typically most frequently used by cancer patients in the country, the demographic has been different this year.

However, legislation around using this sperm is not clear. Russia has no specific legislation about the use of sperm after the man's death, Andrey Ivanov, head of the department of assisted reproductive technologies at Mariinsky Hospital, St Petersburg told Fontanka. When asked whether mobilised men can freeze their sperm, he explained he told them them they could, but said it is clear who can use it and who will have custody of any resulting children.

The ministry decision comes in the wake of several nationally focused moves by the Russian government to grow the population. At the start of 2020, Putin announced a series of plans to increase Russian birth rate, including support for IVF, as well as payments to large families and first-time mothers. Meanwhile, in December 2022, the parliament passed a bill to prevent Russian women from acting as surrogates for families outside Russia, referring to the practice as 'the sale of children' (see BioNews 1170).