Veon to invest $600 million in Ukraine’s Kyivstar amid war

Veon, a global telecoms company, said on Wednesday it would invest $600 million in the infrastructure of its Ukrainian subsidiary Kyivstar, the country’s largest mobile network, which has been damaged by the ongoing war with Russia.

The Amsterdam-listed company said the funds would help upgrade Kyivstar’s infrastructure, including improving connectivity and 4G services throughout Ukraine, where much of the mobile infrastructure has been hit by Russian rocket attacks.

Kyivstar’s technical teams have performed nearly 150,000 repairs since Russia invaded last year, Veon said, adding it ensured that 93 per cent of the network is operational.

“We are using this opportunity to make a bold statement about our commitment to invest,” Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov told Reuters, especially at a time when many other firms are refraining from making future plans.

He said the investment, which will be spread over the next three years, would expand the firm’s 4G network coverage to 98 per cent of Ukraine’s population, but also start making it “5G ready” for once the war is over.

Kyivstar has lost around 7 per cent of its active customer base – or roughly 1.7 million subscribers – since the war started last February. That is because some parts of the country are now controlled by Russia and no longer use its network, but also because others have left Ukraine altogether.

Komarov, who was in London for an international summit on rebuilding Ukraine, said that although customer numbers were likely to continue to “grind down”, Kyivstar was faring better than others and remained “financially positive”.

If needed it could start tapping multilateral development bank support that is available, or borrow in Ukraine if, as expected, the country’s 25 per cent interest rates start coming down in the coming months.

Veon also said it was still working on completing the sale of its Russian business, Vimpelcom, to a group of the unit’s senior managers for $2.2 billion. The deal, announced last November, has faced regulatory hurdles and delays in repatriating money from the sale.

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