The European Medicines Agency begins evaluating Russia's Sputnik V vaccine on Thursday for use in the European Union.

For its part, Russia said it was ready to "provide vaccines for 50 million Europeans from June 2021". 

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced on Thursday that it had started examining the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, a crucial step in view of its deployment in the European Union.

"The AEM has started an ongoing study of Sputnik V, a vaccine against Covid-19 developed by the Russian national center Gamaleya for epidemiology and microbiology," the Amsterdam-based agency said in a statement.

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Russia ready to deliver "50 million doses"

Russian authorities said they were ready on Thursday to provide vaccines to 50 million Europeans from June, following the announcement.

"Following the approval of the EMA, we would be able to provide vaccines for 50 million Europeans from June 2021," Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund, who contributed to the development of this vaccine