Russian operators to not enter uncontrolled territories of Ukraine – Kyivstar President

The president of the Kyivstar mobile operator is convinced that official Russian mobile and Internet operators will not start their work in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

"No Russian operators will enter there. This is my personal conviction. Phoenix and Krymtelecom or other operators from the uncontrolled territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions can start operating there," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Komarov also noted that the occupiers have already declared the launch of their own network in Mariupol, similar actions have been launched in Melitopol.

At the same time, according to Komarov, it is quite difficult to use someone else's equipment in the telecom business – even base stations.

At the same time, he noted that antennas, radio relay stations (if needed), fiber optic transmission can be used.

"Of course, some elements of the network of Ukrainian operators can be used by them. But we still do not see any meaningful actions, for example, to remove part of our infrastructure and start using it. Although, from my point of view, unfortunately, this is only a matter of time," the president of Kyivstar said.

As reported, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection does not confirm the possibility of wiretapping the conversations of Ukrainians by the Russian military.

During the two months of the war, specialists from the Kyivstar mobile operator eliminated more than 48,000 accidents in the physical and digital infrastructure of the network, and also replaced almost 25,000 meters of optical fiber.

Kyivstar is the largest Ukrainian telecommunications operator. It provides communication and data transmission services based on a wide range of mobile and fixed technologies, including 3G. By the end of 2021, its services were used by about 26.2 million mobile subscribers and about 1.2 million fixed Internet customers.

Kyivstar's shareholder is the international group VEON (formerly VimpelCom Ltd.). The group's shares are listed on the NASDAQ (New York) stock exchange.

Source: www.en.interfax.com.ua