The Chechen operator Vainakh Telecom will take operational management of a company providing cellular communication services in the territory of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic. This was reported by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

“In the conditions of stagnation of the Russian economy, in order to partially compensate for the expenses of the Russian state budget on armed aggression against Ukraine by representatives of the Russian government in the so-called. The LPR has made a decision to transfer the local mobile operator LugaKiy (unitary enterprise Lugansk Communications) to the operational management of Vainakh Telecom (city of Grozny, Chechen Republic),” the message says. At the same time, the Russian Ministry of Defense has repeatedly denied information about the participation of the Russian military in the conflict in Donbass, as well as their presence on the territory of Ukraine.

The department said that, according to their data, the draft agreement provides that the Chechen operator will receive 70% of the income from the activities of LugaKiy and will provide numbering resources, operational and technical support, bypassing international sanctions.

“Taking into account the form and structure of ownership of the closed joint-stock company Vainakh Telecom, co-owned by the Minister of Transport and Communications of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Cherkhigov, the likelihood of replenishing the Russian budget in this way is assessed as low,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense concluded.

In February 2015, the Ukrainian operator Kyivstar cut off mobile communications in the part of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions controlled by the militias. The company explained that they cannot physically control the network.

In the summer of 2015, the authorities of the DPR and LPR announced the decision to create their own mobile operators - Phoenix and Lugacom. In February 2016, the general director of MTS Ukraine (Vodafone) Olga Ustinova told LIGA.net that technical support for subscribers in the territories of the self-proclaimed republics is not provided.

CJSC Vainakh Telecom is a communications operator in the Chechen Republic, and also, according to its own data, the largest operator of a multi-service communications network in the North Caucasus. Was created in 2009.

Kyiv learned about the transfer of the telecom operator in the LPR to the Chechen Vainakh Telecom