MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Russia would provide the rebel-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine with its Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, despite Kiev’s ban on using Russian shots.
Ukraine hopes to receive shipments of western-made vaccines soon and has banned the use of Russian vaccines against COVID-19, with its relations with Moscow essentially broken with the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Comments by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Ukrainian rebel-controlled regions came after a local news agency in the self-proclaimed Republic of Donetsk reported on Sunday that Russia had started shipping its vaccine there. .
“As far as I know, there will be deliveries there,” Peskov told reporters in a conference call, referring to the regions of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian rebels.
Peskov said he did not know when the shipments would take place.
“People really need the vaccine,” he said. “If it weren’t for us, nobody would supply it there.”
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which markets the Sputnik V vaccine abroad, said over the weekend that it did not supply the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine.
When asked about Peskov’s statement on Wednesday, RDIF said it had no further comment on the situation.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov and Polina Ivanova; Writing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Edmund Blair)