EU expects start of COVID-19 vaccination in Ukraine in Feb, but concerned about Russian disinformation on this issue – Dombrovskis
The European Commission is involved in the process of reselling coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines to Ukraine from Poland without any benefit and expects vaccination to start this month, Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis has said.
At the same time, at the end of the meeting with Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday in Brussels, he said that there are concerns about the impact of Russian disinformation about the vaccination process.
Dombrovskis said that the European Commission "is exploring options to help Ukraine receive early access to vaccines." "As part of the COVAX program, Ukraine will receive 117,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in February, and 2.2 million to 3.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines during the first half of the year. In addition, the European Commission is helping Poland to resell 1.2 million doses of vaccine. AstraZeneca Ukraine, since the supply agreements signed earlier [with companies] allow reselling [vaccines] without any benefit," he said.
"The Commission helps with contractual arrangements, exports and supplies from Poland to Ukraine through the European civilian defense mechanism," Dombrovskis said.
In this regard, he expressed the hope "to see vaccination will start this month." "However, we are concerned about the impact of Russian disinformation about the vaccination process in Ukraine and are ready to assist in the fight against disinformation and vaccine scepticism," the Executive Vice President of the European Commission said.
According to him, the meeting with the Ukrainian Prime Minister was "very fruitful," during which the parties discussed a number of issues that "are of interest to both Ukraine and the EU."
"Ukraine remains high on the European agenda. We continue to provide political, financial and technical assistance as support for its reform agenda to build a more resilient economy. The EU also stands by Ukraine in fighting the pandemic. We have re-oriented several ongoing and future assistance programmes, with more than EUR 190 million going to Ukraine to help meet its COVID-19-related needs," Dombrovskis said.
