Health Minister of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov said on Sunday that he personally supervised the first batch of AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines for Ukraine from the manufacturer.

"Today I have personally supervised the shipment of the first batch of AstraZeneca (CoviShield) vaccines from the manufacturing plant in the Indian city of Pune. Some 500,000 doses of vaccine are going to Ukraine, and will be further distributed among the regions according to the plan of the Ministry of Health," Stepanov wrote on his Facebook page.

The vaccine is now being transported to Mumbai, he said.

"Further - a long journey by cargo plane with a stop in Istanbul and the vaccine will arrive in Ukraine one of these days. During transportation, all temperature requirements that are necessary to preserve the quality of vaccines will be met," the minister wrote.

He also noted that Oxford/AstraZeneca is a joint development of the University of Oxford and the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, which has manufacturing facilities in India. The COVID-19 vaccine is marketed under the name CoviShield and has been re-qualified by WHO and recommended for emergency use. Serum Institute supplies its products to 140 countries around the world.