For the reason that Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s telecoms operators have confronted a steady battle to keep up connectivity for the nation’s inhabitants. In addition to widespread harm to infrastructure, they’ve needed to cope with frequent energy blackouts, cyberattacks and extra.
Beneath, we check out who these operators are and their relative positions within the nation’s telecom market.
Ukraine Cell Sector’s Ups and Downs
Previous to the 2022 invasion, Ukraine’s cellular sector was already experiencing:
- Widespread financial decline: financial restoration was continuing at a sluggish tempo in 2018 and 2019 earlier than being hit by COVID-19 in 2020
- Russia’s takeover of Crimea: all Ukrainian operators ceased operations within the peninsula by February 2015
- Operational disruption: this started again in 2014, resulting from navy actions in japanese Ukraine.
Telcos have been pressured to spend thousands and thousands of {dollars} on not solely repairing community harm but additionally putting in back-up turbines and base station batteries.
A Altering Image in Ukraine’s Cell Market
Ukraine Cell Subscriptions, 2010–2025
On the finish of June 2025, there have been an estimated 47.5 million cellular subscriptions in Ukraine. This was down from 48.8 million at first of the yr, 50.0 million at end-2023, and properly under the market peak of 60.8 million, reached in 2013.
The market was rising quickly previous to 2014, when pro-Russia forces took management in Crimea and a separatist rebellion happened within the japanese areas of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The 2022 invasion led to a pointy decline in subscription numbers as thousands and thousands of individuals have been displaced inside Ukraine and thousands and thousands extra fled the nation altogether. As well as, an estimated 5 million individuals dwell in Russian-occupied areas of the nation and at the moment are served by Russia-based operators.
Quantity-One Supplier: Kyivstar
As of mid-2025, the cellular sector’s largest supplier by subscriptions was Kyivstar, with round 22.4 million subscriptions and a 47% market share. The agency is a majority owned subsidiary of multinational telecoms group VEON. VEON lowered its stake from 100% to 89.6% in August 2025, as a part of a historic transfer to listing the Ukrainian telco’s shares on the Nasdaq inventory market within the U.S.
Kyivstar had been awarded its GSM concession in March 1997 and launched business cellular companies in December the identical yr. Its early years have been served within the shadow of Ukrainian Cell Communications (UMC, subsequently MTS, now Vodafone Ukraine), and the rivals swapped number-one and number-two market positions a number of instances all through 2001–2005.
For the reason that finish of 2005, Kyivstar has clung to the lead by way of subscriptions.
Aggressive Cell Market
Ukraine Cell Operators, June 2025
Vodafone and Lifecell
Second-place UMC launched the nation’s first cellular community—based mostly on analogue NMT—in 1993. Its digital GSM 900MHz and 1800MHz companies adopted in September 1997 and July 2000, respectively.
The MTS model of Russia’s Cell TeleSystems was established in Ukraine in 2007, with MTS having acquired 100% of UMC’s shares over the last few years. In October 2015, the cellco expanded a non-equity strategic partnership with the UK’s Vodafone Group—in impact since 2008—by rebranding as Vodafone Ukraine.
MTS exited towards the tip of 2019, when Vodafone Ukraine was purchased by Azerbaijani firm Bakcell, which is itself owned by Neqsol Holding.
The third-largest participant is Lifecell, a subsidiary of Turkcell till September 2024 when it was acquired by a consortium led by French billionaire Xavier Niel’s NJJ group. Niel additionally purchased Ukrainian mounted community operator Datagroup and the latter’s subsidiary Volia, and the trio are collectively often called the DVL group.
In October 2024 the DVL group secured a $435 million mortgage from the IFC to assist it modernize, broaden and enhance the standard of its mounted and cellular companies.
Minor CDMA-based operators Intertelecom and PEOPLEnet exited the market at first of 2025, whereas TriMob, an operator with a 3G license protecting Kyiv solely, transferred its frequencies to roaming host Vodafone and now successfully operates as an MVNO.
Mounted Broadband in Ukraine
Not like the cellular market, Ukraine’s mounted broadband section has continued to see pretty regular progress, though—as might be seen from the chart under—the occasions in Crimea and japanese Ukraine in 2014, and the beginning of the broader battle in 2022 each took their toll on the subscription whole.
The sector greater than doubled between 2010 and 2020, with subscriptions rising from 3.66 million subscriptions to 7.35 million.
Having hit a peak of 8.49 million by end-June 2024, the subscription whole has been falling since then, standing at 8.09 million as of mid-2025.
Hit by Battle
Ukraine Mounted Broadband Subscriptions, 2010–2025
Whereas the sector is dominated by a couple of huge gamers, it’s very fragmented, with regional and native ISPs numbering within the hundreds.
Former state-owned monopoly PSTN supplier Ukrtelecom was the biggest mounted broadband supplier by subscriptions till the second half of 2020, when Kyivstar overtook it, and it was then additionally handed by Volia. On the finish of June 2025, Kyivstar claimed simply over 14% of the retail market in person phrases, forward of Volia on 11% and Ukrtelecom with 9%.
Primary cellular supplier Kyivstar has been providing DSL-based web entry since 2003 and fiber-based companies since 2010. The agency has to date deployed fiber infrastructure in additional than 130 cities.
Cableco Volia underwent a change of possession in 2021 when acquired by smaller rival Datagroup, and—as famous above—each at the moment are a part of the DVL group alongside Lifecell. In the intervening time, the three corporations proceed to function below their separate manufacturers.
Ukrtelecom was privatized in 2011, with a 92.9% stake acquired by Austrian-owned agency Epic Telecom Make investments. It bought its curiosity two years later to System Capital Administration (SCM), a conglomerate belonging to Ukraine’s richest citizen, Rinat Akhmetov.
Ukrtelecom has provided DSL connectivity since 2005 and fiber entry since 2015. On the finish of June 2025, it had deployed fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) infrastructure previous greater than three million households.
Subsequent by way of market share is Triolan, which was created in 2008 by a bunch of Ukrainian businessmen. It operates broadband cable TV networks in ten cities.
Rounding out the bigger gamers within the mounted broadband section is Vodafone Ukraine, which acquired ISP Vega from SCM in September 2021. On the time of the acquisition, Vodafone claimed that it was trying to create a fully-converged mounted and cellular operation.
Information on Cell Markets, Mounted Broadband, and Extra
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