Ukraine's vaccine deliveries and Kerch Strait protest, April 2021
A look back at the days around 20 April 2021, when Ukraine received COVAX shipments and protested an alleged Russian plan to restrict the Kerch Strait.
What was reaching Ukraine's public in the days before 20 April 2021? Two developments stood out: new vaccine deliveries and a diplomatic protest over a key waterway.
On 16 April 2021, Ukraine received its first batch of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, Comirnaty, under the global COVAX initiative. The same day, as reported at the time, the country also received 117,000 doses of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX vaccine-sharing scheme. Together, the shipments widened the range of vaccines available to Ukraine during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A day earlier, on 15 April 2021, Ukraine had protested against an alleged Russian announcement that the Kerch Strait would be closed to foreign warships and state ships from the following week until October. The protest was lodged within the framework of Russia–Ukraine relations.
The two threads, one concerning public health and one concerning security, formed the backdrop to 20 April 2021 in Ukraine.
