Ukraine

KIEV, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's Health Ministry received 689 reports of side effects after vaccinations with the AstraZeneca vaccine during the first month of the vaccination program, authorities said on Tuesday.

From Feb. 24 to March 28, nearly 200,000 vaccinations were made against the coronavirus and 689 people reported adverse reactions, the State Expert Center of the Ministry of Health said on Facebook.

KIEV, March 28. /TASS/: The security subgroup of the Contact Group on eastern Ukrainian settlement will convene on Monday or Tuesday to address the escalation of tensions in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian president and Kiev’s chief negotiator in the Group said on Saturday.

"Our security subgroup has made its mind and suggested a meeting. We wanted to meet today, but it all depends on OSCE envoys. Possibly, it [the meeting] will take place on Monday or Tuesday," he told the Ukraine-24 TV channel.

KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has dismissed the head of the constitutional court, who has opposed some anti-corruption reforms, calling his actions a threat to national security, Zelenskiy’s office said on Saturday.

Zelenskiy and the court under Oleksandr Tupytskyi have been locked in a stand-off since last year over anti-corruption legislation, hobbling Ukraine’s chances of securing more foreign loans.

KIEV, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's Armed Forces' air defense brigades performed combat missions on the border with Crimea, the press service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on their official Facebook page on Wednesday.

DONETSK, March 14. /TASS/: Ukraine’s Armed Forces dropped an improvised explosive device from a drone near the Leniskoye village in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic’s south, the Donetsk News Agency reported on Sunday citing the DPR’s mission to the Joint Center for Ceasefire Control and Coordination.

The incident occurred at 12:15 p.m. Moscow Time. The Kiev forces launched a drone from the Ukrainian-controlled Vodyanoye village, the DPR’s mission noted.

KIEV, March 5. /TASS/: Among politicians, Ukrainians trust President Vladimir Zelensky the most, says a poll by the Kiev-based Rating Sociological Group, published Friday.

The survey took place on March 2-3 and covered 2,500 randomly chosen respondents aged above 18 in all regions except those not under Kiev’s control.

"A total of 43% of respondents stated their trust to Vladimir Zelensky; 55% of respondents said they distrust the president," the poll says.

KIEV, March 5. /TASS/: Kiev will not register Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine under any circumstances, Ukrainian Health Minister Maxim Stepanov vowed Friday.

"Under no circumstances will the Russian Sputnik V vaccine be registered in Ukraine. You will not persuade me to do it by any argument," he underscored, speaking in Verkhovna Rada (parliament).

Commenting on a lawmaker’s remark that other countries use the Russian vaccine, Stepanov claimed that "Russia did not take other countries’ territory."

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — An explosion in a Ukrainian hospital ward where COVID-19 patients are being treated has killed one person and injured another, authorities said Saturday.

The national emergencies service said in a statement that the explosion occurred in an oxygen pipe. It said 20 people were evacuated after the blast at the hospital in Chernivtsi, a city about 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Kyiv.

KIEV, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Friday that a summit of the Nomandy Four leaders is needed to achieve progress in conflict resolution in Donbas, according to Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

"Despite all the efforts made at other levels, we understand that to take the next step, a decision is needed," Kuleba said during a press conference after talks with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian in Paris.

For his part, the French diplomat said that there was some progress at the 2019 Normandy Four summit in Paris.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A court in Belarus on Thursday sent two female journalists to prison on charges of violating public order after they covered a protest against the nation’s authoritarian president.