KYIV, Feb 8 - Ukraine, which hopes to vaccinate half of its population against coronavirus by early 2022, is in talks with other countries including Poland about receiving some of their coronavirus vaccines, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday.

Ukraine has lagged behind other countries on the continent in starting its vaccination program against COVID-19, which has infected more than 1.24 million Ukrainians and killed 23,644 people as of Feb. 8, Reuters reported.

It has publicly called on the European Union and EU member states for help to secure vaccines, while resisting buying Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine due to the toxic relations between the two countries since Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

“We now have direct negotiations with countries that will give us their surplus (of vaccines). We already have contacts with Poland,” Zelenskiy told a televised briefing.

"We have agreed to supply vaccines to Ukraine from Pfizer, Sinovac, AstraZeneca and Novavax companies. The first stage of vaccination will begin this month. Our doctors, the military and the National Guard will be the first to receive the vaccine," Zelensky said.

"There is no official information that the Russian vaccine has a 91% effect, neither from WHO nor from world experts. The head of WHO said today that there are several key points to pay attention to, one of them – fakes," Zelensky said.

Zelenskiy said last week that Kyiv had secured a total of 20 million doses of vaccine from India’s Serum Institute and the global COVAX scheme.

Ukraine also expects to receive 5 million doses of vaccine from China’s Sinovac. The government has previously expressed concern about its efficacy but Zelenskiy said he believed it was of high quality, pointing to Turkey using it.

Ukraine plans to start vaccinations in mid-February though the government has said that half the population was not willing to be vaccinated.

Zelenskiy, who contracted COVID-19 last year, said he personally would be vaccinated, but not in the first wave of vaccinations.

The Kremlin said on February 3 that Russia would supply the rebel-controlled regions of eastern Ukraine with its Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 despite Kyiv’s ban on using the Russian shots. (rt/ez)