Kiev (AFP)

Thoracic surgeon treating Covid-19 in Ukraine, Vitaliï Sokolov is impatient to be able to be vaccinated.

But his country, caught in poverty and geopolitical tensions, has not managed to deploy the slightest dose.

"We are waiting very much for the vaccine because we live with constant stress", confides to AFP this 49-year-old man, tall, lively and bald, working at the hospital n ° 17 in Kiev, and now at the head of his unit treating coronavirus patients

"It's very frustrating" to be outnumbered by all your neighbors in the vaccine race, he said, adjusting his mask stuck to his face with adhesive plaster and putting on goggles, coveralls and two pairs of gloves before rushing forward. in the "red zone" of his aging hospital.

Ukraine, one of the poorest countries in Europe and with a decrepit health system, has recorded nearly 1.2 million cases of Covid-19 and more than 21,000 deaths for 40 million inhabitants.

The authorities assure that the first vaccinations could begin as early as mid-February, promises which however leave caregivers doubtful given that so far no precise date for vaccine delivery has been announced.

In question, first of all the inability for Ukraine to place orders with Western producers like Pfizer or Moderna, faced with competition from rich countries.

"The rich found themselves first in the world queue for the vaccine," lamented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the end of December before urging the European Union in January to help its eastern neighbors obtain inoculations, echoing a call from 13 EU states.

Kiev is hardly alone in this case, the WHO having warned Monday that the world was at the gates of a "catastrophic moral failure" if the most powerful continued to monopolize most of the vaccines.

Thus, Kiev can only count for the moment on 8 million doses promised under the UN Covax program as well as 1.9 to 5 million doses of the Chinese vaccine CoronaVac if its effectiveness is confirmed.

Largely insufficient for 40 million inhabitants.

- Call for solidarity -

Neighboring EU member Poland has reserved nearly 60 million vaccines for its 38 million residents.

"It was not a question of the competences of the State, but of access" to the vaccine, declares to AFP Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanichyna reproaching Brussels for an "unfair" approach and calling for "solidarity Politics".

Especially since for the Ukrainian authorities, the other possible source of vaccine is taboo.

Impossible to order doses from Russia, the enemy which annexed Crimea in 2014 and has since fed a separatist war in the East.

"We are not going to buy the Russian vaccine", insists Ms. Stefanichyna, accusing Moscow of instrumentalizing this issue in order to strengthen its "influence" on Ukraine to "destabilize" society.

Pro-Russian politicians are campaigning for the deployment of Russian vaccines, while Moscow wants to develop production partnerships abroad and has made vaccination a tool of its diplomacy.

During a meeting with Vladimir Putin in October, the Ukrainian deputy Viktor Medvedtchouk thus assured, according to his press release, to have "personally tested the effectiveness and the safety" of the Russian vaccine which he claims to have used for himself, his wife and their son.

Opponents, experts and the media finally believe that President Zelensky and his team have failed to handle the situation.

Some even evoke dubious arrangements in this country plagued by corruption.

A pro-Western opposition deputy Oleksandra Oustinova accused the Minister of Health of having blocked the purchase of an Indian-made vaccine for $ 3 a dose against nearly $ 18 for the Chinese CoronaVac.

"Ukraine should have fought to obtain direct contracts" with Western vaccine producers, critic Pavlo Kovtonyuk, head of the health economics department at the Kyiv School of Economics.

“Other poor countries have 5 to 6 vaccines in their wallet and we only have a tiny contract” with the Chinese, he adds.

© 2021 AFP