Prime Minister of Slovakia Igor Matovic proposed to transfer part of Ukraine to Russia for the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine. Thus, he joked when discussing the use of the Russian drug on Radio Express, the recording of the conversation was posted on the radio station's Facebook.
When asked what he had promised the Russian state in exchange for the delivery of the vaccine, he replied with a laugh that he had promised to give the Transcarpathian Ukraine. He then explained that cooperation with Russia does not necessarily mean any kind of treason to Slovakia. He clarified that he did not promise anything from the Russians, and they did not demand anything from him.
On March 1, it became known that Slovakia accepted the first batch of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, despite the fact that the vaccine has not yet been registered in the European Union and approval for its use has not been issued.
A day earlier, the Prime Minister of neighboring Czech Republic Andrei Babis and President Milos Zeman said they were considering the same step. They are considering the option of using a vaccine from Russia without the permission of the European regulator due to the excessively high rate of spread of the new type of coronavirus.
Sputnik V was developed by the Russian Gamaleya Research Center for Electrochemistry and became the world's first officially registered vaccine against coronavirus. It was created on the basis of another adenovirus in which the coronavirus gene is embedded. When it enters the cells, it forms proteins in them – they cause an immune response and promote the development of antibodies.
