Since the Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukraine’s telecoms operators have faced a continuous struggle to maintain connectivity for the country’s inhabitants. As well as widespread damage to infrastructure, they’ve had to deal with frequent power blackouts, cyberattacks and more.
Below, we take a look at who those operators are and their relative positions in the country’s telecom market.
Ukraine Mobile Sector's Ups and Downs
Prior to the 2022 invasion, Ukraine’s mobile sector was already experiencing:
- Widespread economic decline: economic recovery was proceeding at a slow pace in 2018 and 2019 before being hit by COVID-19 in 2020
- Russia’s takeover of Crimea: all Ukrainian operators ceased operations in the peninsula by February 2015
- Operational disruption: this began back in 2014, due to military actions in eastern Ukraine.
Telcos have been forced to spend millions of dollars on not only repairing network damage but also installing back-up generators and base station batteries.
A Changing Picture in Ukraine's Mobile Market
Ukraine Mobile Subscriptions, 2010–2025
At the end of June 2025, there were an estimated 47.5 million mobile subscriptions in Ukraine. This was down from 48.8 million at the start of the year, 50.0 million at end-2023, and well below the market peak of 60.8 million, reached in 2013.
The market was growing rapidly prior to 2014, when pro-Russia forces took control in Crimea and a separatist uprising took place in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The 2022 invasion led to a sharp decline in subscription numbers as millions of people were displaced within Ukraine and millions more fled the country altogether. In addition, an estimated five million people live in Russian-occupied areas of the country and are now served by Russia-based operators.
Number-One Provider: Kyivstar
As of mid-2025, the mobile sector’s largest provider by subscriptions was Kyivstar, with around 22.4 million subscriptions and a 47% market share. The firm is a majority owned subsidiary of multinational telecoms group VEON. VEON reduced its stake from 100% to 89.6% in August 2025, as part of a historic move to list the Ukrainian telco’s shares on the Nasdaq stock market in the U.S.
Kyivstar had been awarded its GSM concession in March 1997 and launched commercial mobile services in December the same year. Its early years were served in the shadow of Ukrainian Mobile Communications (UMC, subsequently MTS, now Vodafone Ukraine), and the rivals swapped number-one and number-two market positions several times throughout 2001–2005.
Since the end of 2005, Kyivstar has clung to the lead in terms of subscriptions.
Competitive Mobile Market
Ukraine Mobile Operators, June 2025
Vodafone and Lifecell
Second-place UMC launched the country’s first mobile network—based on analogue NMT—in 1993. Its digital GSM 900MHz and 1800MHz services followed in September 1997 and July 2000, respectively.
The MTS brand of Russia’s Mobile TeleSystems was established in Ukraine in 2007, with MTS having acquired 100% of UMC’s shares over the previous few years. In October 2015, the cellco expanded a non-equity strategic partnership with the UK’s Vodafone Group—in effect since 2008—by rebranding as Vodafone Ukraine.
MTS exited toward the end of 2019, when Vodafone Ukraine was bought by Azerbaijani company Bakcell, which is itself owned by Neqsol Holding.
The third-largest player is Lifecell, a subsidiary of Turkcell until September 2024 when it was acquired by a consortium led by French billionaire Xavier Niel’s NJJ group. Niel also bought Ukrainian fixed network operator Datagroup and the latter’s subsidiary Volia, and the trio are collectively known as the DVL group.
In October 2024 the DVL group secured a $435 million loan from the IFC to help it modernize, expand and improve the quality of its fixed and mobile services.
Minor CDMA-based operators Intertelecom and PEOPLEnet exited the market at the start of 2025, while TriMob, an operator with a 3G license covering Kyiv only, transferred its frequencies to roaming host Vodafone and now effectively operates as an MVNO.
Fixed Broadband in Ukraine
Unlike the mobile market, Ukraine’s fixed broadband segment has continued to see fairly steady growth, although—as can be seen from the chart below—the events in Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014, and the start of the wider conflict in 2022 both took their toll on the subscription total.
The sector more 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 total has been falling since then, standing at 8.09 million as of mid-2025.
Hit by Conflict
Ukraine Fixed Broadband Subscriptions, 2010–2025
While the sector is dominated by a few big players, it’s very fragmented, with regional and local ISPs numbering in the thousands.
Former state-owned monopoly PSTN provider Ukrtelecom was the largest fixed broadband provider by subscriptions until the second half of 2020, when Kyivstar overtook it, and it was then also passed by Volia. At the end of June 2025, Kyivstar claimed just over 14% of the retail market in user terms, ahead of Volia on 11% and Ukrtelecom with 9%.
Number one mobile provider Kyivstar has been offering DSL-based internet access since 2003 and fiber-based services since 2010. The firm has so far deployed fiber infrastructure in more than 130 cities.
Cableco Volia underwent a change of ownership in 2021 when acquired by smaller rival Datagroup, and—as noted above—both are now part of the DVL group alongside Lifecell. For the time being, the three companies continue to operate under their separate brands.
Ukrtelecom was privatized in 2011, with a 92.9% stake acquired by Austrian-owned firm Epic Telecom Invest. It sold its interest two years later to System Capital Management (SCM), a conglomerate belonging to Ukraine’s richest citizen, Rinat Akhmetov.
Ukrtelecom has offered DSL connectivity since 2005 and fiber access since 2015. At the end of June 2025, it had deployed fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) infrastructure past more than three million households.
Next in terms of market share is Triolan, which was created in 2008 by a group of Ukrainian businessmen. It operates broadband cable TV networks in ten cities.
Rounding out the larger players in the fixed broadband segment is Vodafone Ukraine, which acquired ISP Vega from SCM in September 2021. At the time of the purchase, Vodafone claimed that it was looking to create a fully-converged fixed and mobile operation.
Data on Mobile Markets, Fixed Broadband, and More
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Pete Bell
Pete Bell is a Senior Analyst for TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database and also contributes to the daily CommsUpdate newsletter. He has a particular interest in wireless broadband and was responsible for TeleGeography’s 4G Research Service until it was integrated into GlobalComms.
