A batch of Russia's "high efficacy" Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Hungary on Tuesday, the first delivery to a European Union member, said Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. 

The news coincided with the publication of a study by independent experts that Moscow's vaccine is more than 90% effective.

Hungary broke ranks with the EU last month by becoming the first bloc member to approve and order Sputnik V.

"Today the first batch is arriving from Russia," Szijjarto said in a video posted on his Facebook page.

The first 40,000 doses had landed with two million to be delivered over three months, enough to inoculate one million people, he said.

"The doses were taken without delay to the National Centre for Public Health for the remaining necessary tests to be carried out before Hungarians can get them according to the planned inoculation rollout," the minister said.

Hungary has often clashed with Brussels, especially on migration, and repeatedly criticised what it says is the slow pace of vaccine approval and procurement by EU authorities.

"Brussels' centralised vaccine procurement has failed," said Szijjarto, adding, "We were the first in the EU," to get the Sputnik jab, "but probably not the last."

Last Friday, Budapest also approved the Chinese-made Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine - again the first in the EU to do so - and said it had ordered five million doses.

Russia registered Sputnik V - named after the Soviet-era satellite - in August, months ahead of Western competitors but before the start of large-scale clinical trials, which left some experts wary.

However, the vaccine is 91.6% effective against COVID-19 according to results published in The Lancet journal on Tuesday that the experts said allayed transparency concerns over the jab.