The largest national telecom operator Kyivstar transferred the first 150 million hryvnias to the special account of the state fundraising program United-24, which accumulates funds for the restoration of Ukraine. In total, Kyivstar undertook to provide the country with UAH 300 million to restore the communication infrastructure and strengthen its cyber security.
“We support the state in its efforts to restore and strengthen the digital infrastructure as soon as possible and are ready to be a reliable partner and investor in this matter,” Oleksandr Komarov, President of Kyivstar, commented on the provision of assistance to Ukraine.
According to him, the telecom infrastructure of Ukraine has suffered severe destruction due to the Russian invasion. In particular, since February 2022, Kyivstar engineers have carried out more than 7,000 repair works of the base stations of the network and eliminated 180,000 emergencies. Therefore, Ukraine needs the assistance of big businesses to support the communication infrastructure.
Kyivstar engineers restore connection (AlexAndreeff)
In July 2022, during the Ukraine Recovery Conference international forum in Lugano, Switzerland, Kyivstar announced the most considerable contribution from representatives of the Ukrainian telecom industry in the amount of UAH 300 million. The corresponding Memorandum was signed by the President of Kyivstar, Oleksandr Komarov, and the Head of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov. The funds are credited to a particular account of the United-24 state program to restore Ukraine.
According to the Memorandum between Kyivstar and the Ministry of Statistics, UAH 300 million from the telecom operator will be aimed at the implementation of key tasks defined by President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, including the response to the main challenges in the telecom industry — modernization and development of Ukraine’s digital infrastructure, strengthening cyber protection and countering cyber threats, further development of new digital technologies, etc.
“Digitalization is one of the key elements for the successful recovery of the country after the war. We are grateful to Kyivstar for its contribution to the development of digitalized Ukraine. This support will allow us to implement top digitization projects to become even more technological, fast, and efficient,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov.
According to him, part of the funds from Kyivstar will be directed to the modernization and development of state digital services for Ukrainians and businesses, in particular state registers of property rights and acts of civil status, to launch new digital services in the social and construction spheres, to implement projects on the digital transformation of notaries (e-notary) and CMR note (e-CMR), modernization and development of transport registers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which will allow to launch digital services for registration and re-registration of cars in Diia and issuing digital driver’s licenses.
For the largest Ukrainian operator, this is not the first experience of participating in large-scale humanitarian projects and initiatives. Kyivstar helps Ukraine to overcome the challenges of war. The company transferred more than UAH 104 million to charitable funds for the humanitarian needs of soldiers, hospitals, the elderly, and war victims. Kyivstar provided subscribers with free services in the amount of over UAH 563 million. During 2022, Kyivstar paid more than UAH 5.9 billion in taxes and fees to the state budget and also invested almost UAH 1.7 billion in the restoration and expansion of mobile communication networks in Ukraine.
