Ukraine signed a contract with Pfizer for the supply of 10 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced on Tuesday.

Ukraine has formally banned registration of Russian-designed vaccines against coronavirus, the government said in a decree published on Wednesday. "Registration of vaccines... production of which was carried out in a state recognised by Ukrainian parliament as the state-aggressor, is prohibited," the decree, cited by Reuters, said.

Ukraine closed schools, restaurants and gyms on Friday as a tighter nationwide lockdown took effect to fight the coronavirus pandemic in the nation of 41 million people, Reuters reported.

The IMF Executive Board on Tuesday approved an 18-month stand-By arrangement for Ukraine, which Kiev says is needed to stave off default as the coronavirus pandemic plunges the country's economy into recession, news wires reported. Ukraine will receive an immediate disbursement of about $2.1bn.

Ukraine's troubled health care system has been overwhelmed by COVID-19, AP reported. Thousands of Ukrainians who had temporary jobs in Europe have returned home amid the pandemic and some brought the virus back with them. As COVID-19 patients flood into the struggling hospitals, some doctors and nurses must buy their own protective gear or use improvised equipment. Many of them are getting sick: medical workers account for about a fifth of all coronavirus cases in Ukraine. 

The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine on Thursday discussed advancing peace in east Ukraine, but achieved little as progress is also hampered by the coronavirus restrictions, observers noted.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin will held on Monday their first face-to-face meeting, participating in Normandy format summit in Paris.

Ukraine's President Zelenskiy disbanded the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday and scheduled snap parliamentary elections for 21 July, news wires reported. The 41-year-old TV comedian, who won 73% of the presidential vote last month, promised the early vote in his inauguration speech on Monday, saying that current lawmakers were too focused on self-enrichment and lacked public trust.

The TV star Volodymyr Zelenskiy was sworn in as Ukraine's new president on Monday and his first step was to disband parliament and to set up early elections in two months, news wires reported.