Ukraine will abandon COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine developed in Russia in favor of producers from the European Union and the United States, said the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Dmitry Kuleba.
Earlier the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that there are several enterprises in the country which are ready to produce COVID-19 coronavirus vaccines in mass, the authorities are negotiating with the countries-developers.
Commenting on what Kiev would say if the Russian Federation offered Ukraine a coronavirus vaccine of its own production, Kuleba said in an interview with the UNN agency on Tuesday: “We cooperate effectively with the European Union, the United States and other countries in this area”.
At the same time, he noted that Kiev has a very substantive dialogue with the European Union and a very close dialogue with the United States regarding the receipt of coronavirus vaccines. “And when I say ‘dialogue’. – This (means) is already developing models of how we can access the vaccine when they have it”, – Kuleba said.
The Russian Ministry of Health previously registered the world’s first vaccine for COVID-19 prevention, developed by SICEM Gamaleya and produced jointly with the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Kirill Dmitriev, Head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, reported that the Fund has received applications from more than 20 countries for a billion doses of domestic coronavirus vaccine. At the same time, he noted that Russia has agreed to produce the vaccine in five countries, the available capacity allows producing 500 million doses per year.