Feature story

UNAIDS welcomes Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for official visit to UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva

03 October 2013

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé welcomed the Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Kostyantyn Gryshchenko to UNAIDS Headquarters in Geneva. During their bilateral meeting, they reviewed Ukraine’s impressive progress in its national AIDS response.

The country has nearly doubled the number of people accessing HIV treatment in the last year—now reaching more than 40 000 people. Vice Prime Minister Gryshchenko conveyed his appreciation to UNAIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and national foundations for supporting the HIV response in Ukraine and expressed hope that Ukraine will advance this progress through the newly developed National AIDS Programme for 2014-2018.

The Vice Prime Minister also reiterated the invitation by the Government of Ukraine to Mr Sidibé to make his first official visit from 22 to 24 October 2013.

In October 2012, a high-level delegation of the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) visited Ukraine to see first-hand the achievements in the national AIDS response. Ukraine will join as a new member of the PCB for a three-year term from 2014 to 2016.

Quotes

We are committed to work with UNAIDS to change social attitudes about HIV in Ukraine to reduce stigma, strengthen HIV prevention and ensure access to life-saving services.

Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine

Ukraine's newly developed National AIDS Programme for 2014-2018 can be a model of national mobilization and concrete results for other countries in Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director