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What Ukraine's April 2021 firsts signalled
Summary
A vaccine rollout and an energy-storage installation marked two separate beginnings in the spring of 2021.
What did Ukraine begin in the days around 13 April 2021? Two separate things, in two different fields.
On 13 April 2021, vaccination against coronavirus started in Ukraine, using CoronaVac, made by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech. The start of the process marked a new stage in the country's response to the pandemic.
Four days earlier, on 9 April 2021, the energy company DTEK completed installation of what was described as Ukraine's first industrial energy storage system. The unit has a capacity of 1 MW and a storage capacity of 2.25 MWh.
Two firsts, little in common
The two events belong to different spheres and should not be read as linked. One concerned public health and the sourcing of a vaccine from a Chinese manufacturer. The other concerned the power sector, where a private company put a storage system into place for the first time at industrial scale in Ukraine.
Taken together, they show the spring of 2021 as a period of new starts: a vaccination campaign beginning with one specific product, and a modest 1 MW storage installation that gave Ukraine its first industrial example of the technology.
