Covid-19: Ukraine bans the use of Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in front of Parliament in Kiev, March 31, 2020. AP

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

The Ukrainian government has decided, its fellow citizens will not be vaccinated with Sputnik V. This Wednesday evening, February 10, a decree banned the use in Ukraine of the vaccine made in Russia, while the vaccination campaign could start the week next.

President Volodymyr Zelensky therefore took a firm stance on an issue that was poisoning people's minds in Kiev. 

Publicity

Read more

With our correspondent in Kiev,

Stéphane Siohan

Last Monday, during the presentation of the Ukrainian coronavirus vaccination strategy, President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated his wish not to use the

Sputnik V vaccine

, casting doubts on its effectiveness, even though in the meantime the scientific journal

The Lancet

confirmed the qualities of the Russian vaccine. 

On Wednesday evening, the Kyiv government therefore issued a decree that bans the registration on Ukrainian territory of the Sputnik vaccine, but for political reasons: " 

We prohibit the registration of vaccines, which were produced in a country recognized by the Ukrainian parliament as an aggressor state.

 "

In many countries the Sputnik V vaccine will save lives, but in Kiev Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba, a moderate figure, called it " 

a weapon of hybrid war

 ." 

Toxic subject

Indeed, the equation is: as Moscow seeks to expand the use of Sputnik V, how do you explain to Ukrainians that they would be given a vaccine from a country that is waging war on Ukraine? 

But now, Volodymyr Zelensky no longer has the right to make mistakes.

He announced that he had secured

20 million doses of Western vaccines.

If his vaccination campaign were to experience some hiccups, the toxic subject of Sputnik could return to pollute Ukrainian political life.

► 

To read also: Ukraine: vaccination against Covid-19, new front in the conflict with pro-Russian territories

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Ukraine

  • Russia

  • Vaccines

  • Coronavirus

On the same subject

Covid-19 in Ukraine: the specter of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Ukraine: vaccination against Covid-19, new front in the conflict with pro-Russian territories

Covid-19: Von der Leyen helps Ukraine launch vaccination campaign