Fatherland’s future

Ukr. fighters flock to sperm banks

Ukrainian soldiers headed off to battle are trying to ensure the survival of their bloodlines by freezing their sperm before they leave.

The practice, which several local clinics have begun offering for free, has become something of a patriotic duty, according to The New York Times.

Besides being a way to offer a bit of comfort to their partners left behind, at least some of the male soldiers are taking the measure to combat what they see as the Russians trying to exterminate them and their countrymen.

“The modern world allows us to give birth and raise the children of our fallen loved ones — the bravest and most courageous humans in this world,” said Nataliya Kyrkach-Antonenko, who told the Times that her husband died on the battlefield while she was three months pregnant.

“Raise them worthy of their father with the same love for Ukraine, and give them the chance to live in the country for which their father shed his blood,” she said.

Kyrkach-Antonenko has become a poster child for the practice.

Her late husband, Vitaly, froze his sperm before going to war, she said. And although he was killed, Kyrkach-Antonenko said he will be the father of all her future children.

Now, she uses her Facebook page to encourage other soldiers to do the same for their wives.

The Ukrainian Parliament appears to be seizing the mantle as well, with lawmakers debating a bill that would have the state subsidize the service.

“This is a continuation of our gene pool,” Oksana Dmytriieva, the bill’s author, told the Times.

The idea isn’t new. The Times said several cryogenic firms offered to freeze American soldiers’ sperm before they headed to Iraq or Afghanistan.

It is unclear how many Ukrainian men have agreed to participate, but Dr. Oleksandr Mykhailovych Yuzko, president of the Ukrainian Association of Reproductive Medicine, said requests have risen at clinics throughout Ukraine.

About 100 soldiers have frozen their sperm at IVMED, a private clinic in Kyiv, according to head doctor Halyna Strelko.

The business has waived the $55 cost of cryptopreservation for those fighting the Russians.

“We don’t know how else to help. We can only make children or help make them. We don’t have weapons, we can’t fight, but what we do is also important,” Strelko said.

Vitalii Khroniuk and his partner, Anna Sokurenko, decided to go to the clinic after Khroniuk had an epiphany while enduring a fusillade of Russian artillery fire.

His one regret, he said, was never having a child. Sokurenko, 24, agreed.