KIEV, October 3. /TASS/. Ukrainian Health Minister Viktor Lyashko promised to President Vladimir Zelensky on Saturday to begin the production of the country’s first anti-coronavirus vaccine next year.

"I have a question: when are we going to produce our own vaccine? I haven’t seen this in your plan. When are we going to start manufacturing vaccines against various diseases in Ukraine," Zelensky asked Lyashko during a visiting session of the Servant of the People party in the city of Truskavets in Western Ukraine’s Lvov Region.

The minister replied: "We have already started assembling a production line for inactivated vaccines against influenza and COVID-19. <…> More details will be available by the end of this year, but Ukraine’s first vaccine will be manufactured next year."

The leader of the Ukrainian Party Opposition Platform - For Life, Viktor Medvedchuk, said last December that the Kharkov-based Biolek pharmaceutical company had applied for the registration of Sputnik V, in particular for its production in Ukraine and the vaccination of Ukrainians. The politician said that the vaccine’s production could be organized in the country within three to six months. Medvedchuk had held talks with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the Gamaleya National Research Center (the developer of Sputnik V). After the meetings, the politician said Kiev could resolve the vaccination issue by rolling out production of Sputnik V in Ukraine. Nevertheless, the Ukrainian authorities turned the Russian vaccine down, entering into negotiation with all the other producers of coronavirus vaccines, excluding Russian.

As a result, Ukraine was among the last countries in Europe to launch a vaccination campaign, starting it on February 24, 2021. Currently, the country uses COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and CoronaVac.