President Putin offers to provide Sputnik V vaccine to the United Nations for free

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for a high-level meeting on development efforts.Covid-19 vaccineglobally. He also offered to provide the country's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine to UN staff for free.

Russian President Putin.Photo: Reuters.

"Fundamentally, we are all facing a new challenge - the Covid-19 pandemic. This epidemic has directly affected millions of people and caused hundreds of thousands of deaths. Isolation measures such as closing borders have caused countless problems for citizens of almost all countries - that is the reality today," President Putin affirmed.

World leaders interested in cooperating on the development of a Covid-19 vaccine will meet and discuss the fight against the deadly disease and making it accessible to everyone, President Putin said, calling it a top priority for all of humanity. The Russian leader also stressed that Russia was the first country in the world to register the Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, which has proven to be "reliable, safe and effective."

"We are completely open and ready to welcome cooperation. In this regard, we are taking an initiative to hold a high-level online conference in the near future with countries interested in cooperating in developing a Covid-19 vaccine."

Commenting that the Covid-19 epidemic is affecting UN staff, Mr. Putin proposed that Russia will support the organization in dealing with the epidemic. President Putin affirmed that Russia is ready to provide free Covid-19 vaccines to any UN staff willing to be vaccinated, and said that Russia has received a number of orders from UN member countries.

The United Nations has thanked the Russian president for his "generous offer" and said it would look into the matter further.

"We thank President Putin for this generous offer and our health authorities will consider it further," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The Sputnik V vaccine is currently undergoing final large-scale trials. Tens of thousands of Russians and foreigners have volunteered to take part in the vaccination program. Several countries around the world, including Russia's partners India and the Philippines, have also expressed interest in purchasing the Sputnik V vaccine.