By Pavel Polityuk and Ilya Zhegulev
KYIV (Reuters) – A Ukrainian pharmaceutical company, backed by a prominent Russian leaning opposition figure, has sought state approval to make the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine a sensitive step in light of toxic relations between Kiev and Moscow.
The two countries have been at loggerheads since Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and its involvement in a conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region that killed 14,000 people, according to Kyiv.
The Ukrainian government has at least downplayed the prospects of approving the Sputnik V vaccine soon.
Health Minister Maksym Stepanov told Reuters the issue was being used by some powers as “political PR” and as part of Russia’s “hybrid warfare” against Ukraine.
The Ukrainian pharmaceutical firm Biolik said in a statement on its website that it had applied to register Gam-COVID-Vac, also known as Sputnik V, in Ukraine. Russia on Saturday pushed the idea of holding clinical trials in Ukraine.
“I’m not going to judge the chance of the Biolik company,” Stepanov said by telephone. “It would be very soft to say that we are not sure about the Russian vaccine. We do not know how the research was conducted.”
Biolik’s application was promoted by Ukrainian opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Deputy Health Minister Viktor Lyashko is quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that Ukraine will only use vaccines that have completed clinical trials. Sputnik V is still undergoing phase III trials.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the New York Times last month that the vaccine would be used in Russia’s ‘information war’ against Ukraine.
But he also said: “… it is impossible to explain to Ukrainian society why you do not take the vaccine from Russia if America and Europe do not give you the vaccine. It is impossible to explain to someone who is dying . “
Zelenskiy’s government expects to receive COVID-19 vaccines from China and the global COVAX scheme for poorer countries to fight the pandemic.
Stepanov said Ukraine will soon sign more contracts with reputable manufacturers.
(Written by Matthias Williams. Edited by Mark Potter)