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Ukraine's Kyivstar to increase financial investments in energy durability, CEO states

Ukraine's leading mobile operator Kyvistar will ramp up financial investments to enhance its energy durability amidst Russia's intensified attack on the nation's. power grids, CEO Oleksandr Komarov informed Reuters on Thursday.

Ukraine has been facing a significant energy deficit considering that. Moscow restored its attack on power grids and transmission lines. last spring, triggering day-to-day blackouts of approximately 12 hours in major. cities consisting of the capital Kyiv.

The nation's telecoms regulator stated in July that mobile. operators must be able to cover failures of approximately 10 hours at. their stations from February, instead of the four needed now.

We will invest billions of additional hryvnias into the energy. strength, Komarov stated.

Kyivstar's parent company VEON in June raised its. digital infrastructure investment target in Ukraine to $1. billion by 2027.

Komarov stated the work remained in development, but flagged big. functional obstacles such as battery availability, logistics,. and limited charging power between blackouts.

We are moving towards ... 6 hours of backup throughout at. least all key sites and 4 hours for the whole network, he. stated, including that 60% of Kyivstar's network presently had a. four-hour backup, while 40% of it might last 2-4 hours.

Asked about the freezing of Kyivstar's corporate rights by. Ukrainian authorities, the CEO stated the appeal process was. underway, with the next court hearing expected on Sept. 13.

I'm confident that this concern will and ought to be resolved,. Komarov said, including the decision had not impacted Kyivstar's. operations.

Last October, a Kyiv court froze 47.85% of Kyivstar's. business rights due to the previous participation of sanctioned. Russian individuals in VEON.

Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman, who has been under EU. sanctions considering that 2022 despite being recently cleared by the. bloc's top court, gave up VEON board 2 years back as the EU moved. to sanction him.

There is no grounds for nationalisation

(source: Reuters)