DISINFO: Ukraine refusal to register Sputnik V will show criminal intention against its own citizens
SUMMARY
A Ukrainian pharmaceutical company has applied to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine for registration of Sputnik V.
The refusal by the authorities or any obstruction of the legal procedure for registering the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in Ukraine will indicate the criminal intention of the authorities to deprive Ukrainian citizens of the right to receive medical protection against the coronavirus.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation on coronavirus aiming to promote the Sputnik V vaccine.
In general, the Sputnik V vaccine has been met with international skepticism, and even the World Health Organisation expressed some reservations, especially as it hasn’t completed large trials to test the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. Rolling out an inadequately vetted vaccine could endanger the people who receive it.
The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was clear when he said:
“If someone has a vaccine for COVID-19, Ukraine will buy it”, and he even pointed out the same argument regarding any vaccine from the EU by stating, "The EU has confirmed that it will help Ukraine get a real vaccine when it appears and when it does not cast doubts from the scientists."
According to Ukrainian Healthcare Minister Maksym Stepanov, the Ukrainian government is not planning to acquire the Russian vaccine, "given that the latter has not yet gone through the third stage of clinical trials." On the same note, the Ukrainian Health Ministry stated that the country is already set to receive a COVID-19 vaccine via the COVAX mechanism, an international initiative launched by the World Health Organisation, the European Commission, and the government of France, to ensure efficient access to COVID-19 vaccines once they are ready.
See similar disinformation cases alleging that Rejection of Sputnik V is a planned operation to kill Ukrainians; that Ukraine’s refusal of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine is a crime against their own people; that Ukrainian Information and psychological operations groups aim to discredit the Russian vaccine; that Kyiv demands to start production of Russian vaccines in Ukraine that it’s better for Ukrainians to die than to be saved by cheap Russian vaccine.