Former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, called on countries to value traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and apply it in the cause of health for mankind in a recent interview.

Yulia Tymoshenko receives interview from People’s Daily Online.

In August this year, Tymoshenko was diagnosed with COVID-19 and at one point was in critical condition. After hearing the news, the Chinese embassy in Ukraine not only sent her traditional medicines, but also contacted a TCM doctor named Cai Chuanqing to provide telemedicine services for her.

"I once falsely thought of the novel coronavirus as flu, and it was when the virus actually happened to my family and myself that I finally realized how serious it is," she said.

"At the most difficult time, Chinese friends offered their help, which meant a lot to me," she added.

Dr Qin Xiaoguang from Gansu University of Chinese Medicine gives a lecture on TCM treatment in Ukraine.

After more than two weeks of emergency treatment, Tymoshenko recovered and later repeatedly expressed her gratitude to Cai via video and email. "TCM has played an important role in helping my family and me recover," she said.

China is promoting TCM to the world under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which will benefit countries along the route, according to Tymoshenko, who added that she will actively facilitate the establishment of a TCM research and treatment center in Ukraine, and contribute to deepening the cooperation between Ukraine and China in this field.

TCM is very popular among the Ukrainian people. Doctors who have studied TCM are trusted in the country, and TCM has been used in clinical treatment in Ukraine, according to an associate professor of acupuncture and moxibustion at the Ukraine National Medical University and executive of the Qihuang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Ukraine.

In October 2013, the Gansu University of Chinese Medicine in northwest China's Gansu province and Ukraine National Medical University jointly established the Qihuang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Ukraine to promote TCM culture and knowledge.

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Cui Wen, a TCM doctor from China, feels a patient’s pulse in a hospital in Kiev, Ukraine.

From 2013 to 2018, five batches of 55 trainees from Ukraine studied basic knowledge of TCM in Gansu.

Gansu boasts rich resources of TCM materials, a profound TCM culture, and a sound foundation for the development of Chinese medicine, said Yuan Ying, head of the foreign exchange and cooperation office at the health commission of Gansu province.

The province has carried out extensive and in-depth cooperation with Ukraine over the past five years, contributing to the promotion of the development of culture, medicine and friendship between the two countries, Yuan added.