February 18 (SeeNews) - Montenegro has received 2,000 doses of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine from Serbia, the government in Podgorica said.
The delivery represents the first batch of a total of 4,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine to be donated to Montenegro by Serbia, the Montenegrin government said in a statement late on Wednesday.
The vaccines were handed over by Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabic to Montenegrin counterpart Zdravko Krivokapic at a ceremony at Podgorica airport.
Last week, Montenegro's health authorities approved Russia's Sputnik V vaccine for the immunisation of its citizens against COVID-19 under the emergency use authorization procedure without additional local clinical trials.
Earlier in February, Montenegro's foreign minister Djordje Radulovic said Montenegro has not yet received a single dose of COVID-19 vaccines approved by the EU, despite requests made to EU officials.
Serbia also donated 4,680 doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to North Macedonia on February 15. Serbia agreed to donate a total of 8,000 vaccine doses to North Macedonia, the government in Belgrade said in a separate statement back then.