Up to one-third of Kyivstar network without power, CEO urges customers to arrange backup power for routers
Service disruptions are currently among the most severe since summer 2024: more than 30% of the network of Ukraine’s largest mobile operator, Kyivstar, is without power, CEO Oleksandr Komarov said, urging fixed-internet users to arrange backup power for their routers so they can stay connected longer.
"Today is a very difficult day, one of the hardest since summer 2024. As of 9 a.m., more than 30 percent of the network is without power, almost evenly across the country. Five regional technical centers are running on generators," Komarov wrote on Facebook Thursday morning.
He said the network is largely operating during the day on batteries and generators. "Unfortunately, about 4% of sites have become non-operational," the CEO acknowledged.
He reminded customers that, in preparation for prolonged blackouts, the company reserved 99% of its Home Internet network for up to 12 hours of autonomous operation even before the start of autumn, installing more than 80,000 modern LiFePO4 batteries and investing nearly UAH 300 million in 2024–2025 to that end.
"Thus, when the power is out, the fixed network remains operational. But in order to use the internet as long as possible, subscribers should do their part of the ‘backup’ and connect their routers to backup power. A power bank, an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), or a charging station will suffice," Komarov explained.
At the same time, he said that as of mid-November only 15–20% of Home Internet subscribers had arranged backup power for their routers; during the recent full blackout in Poltava region, the customer backup rate was only about 2%.
"And then everything is interconnected: users switch to mobile internet, load on base stations increases, their autonomous runtime shortens, and the quality of mobile service and data speeds deteriorate," the head of the largest mobile operator described the situation.
He urged customers to do their part to ensure backup solutions for the network so the country can stay connected.
After the November 8 attack and subsequent events, Ukrenergo daily imposes up to four rounds of rolling outages, which in many regions means more than 12 hours without power per day.
In Q3 2025 Kyivstar served 22.5 million mobile subscribers, 3.6% fewer than a year earlier, but the number of 4G customers grew 2.4% to 15 million. In addition, it had more than 1.1 million Home Internet subscribers. In early September Komarov reported that the company operates more than 16,000 telecom sites.