MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia would supply the rebel-held regions of eastern Ukraine with its Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, despite banning Kyiv from using Russian shots.
Ukraine expects to receive shipments of Western-made vaccines soon and has banned the use of Russian vaccines against COVID-19, essentially severing its ties with Moscow through the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s comments on Ukraine’s rebel areas come after a local news agency in the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic reported on Sunday that Russia had begun sending its vaccine there.
“As far as I understand, there will be deliveries,” Peskov told reporters in a telephone conversation, referring to the regions in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian rebels.
Peskov said he did not know when shipments would take place.
“People really need the vaccine,” he said. “If we do not, then no one will provide it there.”
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which markets the Sputnik V vaccine abroad, said at the weekend that it did not deliver the breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine.
Asked about Peskov’s statement on Wednesday, RDIF said he had no further comment on the situation.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov and Polina Ivanova; Written by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Edited by Edmund Blair)