Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine and lifecell launch 5G pilot in Lviv

Details: John Tanner; Category: Wireless Networks; 13 January 2026; 377 views

Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation announced on Monday it has kicked off a 5G pilot programme in Lviv in cooperation with the country’s three main telcos – Kyivstar, Vodafone Ukraine and lifecell – although a full-scale launch will only come after the ongoing war with Russia finally ends.

According to a ministry statement, a 5G test zone has been set up in the historical centre of Lviv to evaluate network performance in real-world urban conditions. The ministry has allocated spectrum in the 3,500-MHz and 700-MHz bands for the pilot.

Once the 5G pilot is deemed successful, it will be expanded other Ukrainian cities this year, with a focus on the most populous cities that already have advanced infrastructure, including Kharkiv, Borodianka, Kyiv and Odesa.

However, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov admitted that a full-scale 5G rollout won’t happen until after the war ends.

The Ukrainian government has held off on allocating 5G spectrum during wartime when the country is in a state of martial law.

In addition to the usual challenges of rolling out 5G – such as integration with existing 4G and investment in additional radio and optical equipment – Ukrainian telcos also face war-related challenges, such as ensuring that spectrum usage doesn’t interfere with military communications and maintaining a stable energy supply, as 5G requires more power than 4G.

The latter is particularly challenging with Russian forces continuing to target energy infrastructure, said lifecell CEO Mykhailo Shelemba.

“Everything will depend on the reserve power supply, the duration and nature of outages (emergency or planned), network load, etc,” he said in a statement. “Since 5G consumes more energy, the stable operation of the basic communication network will remain a priority.”

Shelemba added that lifecell has invested over UAH2 billion (US$46.2 million) in boosting its backup capabilities: “We have purchased 48,000 lithium batteries and are constantly replenishing the generator fleet.”

For all that, Ukrainian telcos are keen to put 5G through its paces in a test environment. Kyivstar said it has been testing 5G in its head office in Kyiv since February 2024, and in Lviv from April to October 2025. Vodafone Ukraine said it has been testing the technology since 2021, while lifecell said its first 5G tests date back to 2019.

“Thanks to the active position of the Ministry of Digital Affairs, we can already test the technology in real urban conditions,” said Kyivstar CEO Oleksandr Komarov in a ministry release.

“For us, this is not an experiment, but a model proven by Vodafone's experience in Europe,” added Vodafone Ukraine CEO Olga Ustinova. “These applied tests provide an understanding of how the network behaves in practice.”

“Even in the midst of full-scale war – under constant Russian attacks on infrastructure and during blackouts – Ukraine continues to move forward and expand innovation in the telecom sector,” said Minister Fedorov.

All three telcos said that they won't charge suscribers extra to use the 5G pilot network, although lifecell's Shelemba added that 5G smartphone penetration in Ukraine is not that high: "In our network, the share of users with 5G smartphones is 29%."