By Pavel Polityuk and Ilya Zhegulev
KYIV (Reuters) – A Ukrainian pharmaceutical company supported by a prominent figure of the Russian-trend opposition has asked for state approval to make the Russian vaccine Sputnik V COVID-19, a delicate move due to toxic relations between Kiev and Moscow.
The two countries have been at odds since Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 and involvement in a conflict in the eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region, which Kiev says killed 14,000 people.
The Ukrainian government has minimized the prospects for the rapid approval of the Sputnik V vaccine, if it will approve it.
Health Minister Maksym Stepanov told Reuters that the issue was being used as “political public relations” by some forces and as part of Russia’s “hybrid war” against Ukraine.
Ukrainian pharmaceutical Biolik said in a statement on its website that it has applied for registration of Gam-COVID-Vac, also known as Sputnik V, in Ukraine. Russia launched on Saturday the idea of conducting clinical trials in Ukraine.
“I am not going to assess the chances of Biolik,” Stepanov said by phone. “It would be very smooth to say that we are not sure about the Russian vaccine. We do not know how the research was carried out.”
Biolik’s candidacy was promoted by Ukrainian opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Deputy Health Minister Viktor Lyashko was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that Ukraine would only use vaccines that have completed clinical trials. Sputnik V is still undergoing Phase III testing.
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 was also quoted as saying “… it is impossible to explain to Ukrainian society why not get the vaccine from Russia if America and Europe do not give you the vaccine. It is impossible to explain it to anyone who dies.”
The Zelenskiy government hopes to receive COVID-19 vaccines from China and the global COVAX scheme for poorer nations to combat the pandemic.
Stepanov said that Ukraine would sign more contracts with trusted manufacturers in the near future.
(Written by Matthias Williams. Editing by Mark Potter)