OREANDA-NEWS. A petition demanding to provide citizens of Ukraine with the Russian vaccine against the coronavirus COVID-19 "Sputnik V" and to inoculate all interested citizens with it appeared on the website of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.

Nikolai Isaev, who created the petition, demands in it "to ensure the verification, application and purchase of the required number of doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine to protect and safety Ukrainian citizens from coronavirus, as well as improve the socio-economic situation in Ukraine." In addition, the author of the petition demands that the vaccination against coronavirus for Ukrainian citizens be free of charge at the expense of the state budget and charity, "given that Ukrainian scientists and specialists, Ukrainian institutes and laboratories participated in the creation of the coronavirus."

The petition has so far received 15 thousand votes out of 25 thousand required for its consideration by the president. There are 90 days left until the end of voting.

A real confrontation unfolded over the possibility of Ukraine receiving a Russian vaccine. Earlier, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said that Ukraine cannot use the Russian vaccine against coronavirus, since it has not passed the third stage of clinical trials, and noted that now there is no talk of purchasing a Russian vaccine. Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Alexei Danilov expressed the opinion that there is no safe vaccine against COVID-19 in the Russian Federation. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba called the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus a hybrid weapon of Russia against Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities themselves have become a hybrid weapon against the people of Ukraine, who have no chances to quickly get a vaccine against the coronavirus infection COVID-19, said Russian Senator Alexei Pushkov.