Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest mobile operator, increased its EBITDA by 28.5% in the first quarter of 2026 to UAH 7.5 billion, while revenue rose by 31.3% to UAH 13.9 billion, according to the company’s quarterly report released on Wednesday.
“We continue to strengthen our long-term market leadership thanks to the successful integration of Uklon and Tabletki, the innovative Starlink connectivity, and investments in our network and energy independence,” Kyivstar CEO and President Oleksandr Komarov is quoted as saying in the document.
He noted that given this momentum, the company has raised its financial forecasts for 2026 and now expects revenue growth in hryvnia of 18–21% (previously 15–18%) and EBITDA growth of 14–17% (previously 12–15%).
In dollars, Kyivstar now estimates revenue growth this year at 11–14% (previously 8–11%) and EBITDA growth at 7–10% (previously 5–8%), while in the first quarter, revenue in dollars rose by 26.6% to $323 million, and EBITDA by 23.5% to $173 million.
The company’s net profit for January–March of this year jumped by 93.2% in dollars—to $85 million (in hryvnias—by 99.1%), and earnings per share amounted to $0.37.
It is noted that revenue from digital platforms for January-March 2026 increased nearly 3.6-fold to $67 million (in hryvnia, 3.7-fold to 2.9 billion UAH), and the digital business’s share of EBITDA amounted to $29 million.
The number of Kyivstar’s multiplay customers grew by 31.6% in the first quarter of 2026—to 8.1 million, representing 39.6% of the total number of active mobile customers over the course of a single month.
Kyivstar’s total number of customers in the first quarter of 2026 decreased by 3% to 22 million, while the number of broadband subscribers increased to 1.2 million, thanks to the integration of approximately 52,000 customers following the successful acquisition of the internet provider Shtorm.
ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) for the first quarter of 2026 increased by 14.1% to $3.8 (in hryvnia, by 18.4% to 166.5 UAH).
The average number of minutes a subscriber uses per month (Mobile MoU) increased by 2.3% to 297.
The report also states that the total number of monthly active digital users for the quarter grew from 20.8 million to 28.4 million. Specifically, Uklon and Tabletki had 5.1 million and 6.3 million users, respectively; Helsi saw an increase from 4.8 million to 4.9 million; KyivstarTV rose from 3.1 million to 3.4 million; and
MyKyivstar grew from 7.8 million to 8.7 million.
The online taxi service Uklon, which was consolidated into Kyivstar’s financial statements in April 2025, generated UAH 1.425 billion in revenue, or $32.9 million, in the first quarter of 2026. Its EBITDA amounted to UAH 538.9 million, or $12.4 million. The number of rides in the first quarter of 2026 was 43.7 million, and deliveries totaled 1.5 million.
It is noted that the Helsi medical information system had 87,000 paid subscribers as of the end of the first quarter of 2026, compared to 57,000 at the end of 2025; its revenue amounted to UAH 93 million, compared to UAH 68 million in the first quarter of 2025. The service’s clients have access to 1,700 public and private clinics and nearly 41,000 medical professionals.
The Tabeltki.ua service generated revenue of 233.9 million UAH, or $5.3 million, in February–March 2026. EBITDA amounted to UAH 195.8 million, or $4.5 million; the gross merchandise value (GMV) for orders placed through the platform was UAH 11.2 billion, and the total number of orders reached 30.6 million.
In the first quarter of 2026, the Kyivstar TV platform increased the number of user sessions by 11.7% to 931 million, and revenue reached UAH 453 million compared to UAH 89 million in the first quarter of 2025. “These results were driven by a strong content offering, including the Kyivstar TV Originals crime drama series
‘Tikha Nava,’ which has been the platform’s most popular show since its launch and helped attract new customers,” the report explains.
Kyivstar.Tech contributed an additional UAH 715 million in the first quarter of this year compared to UAH 632 million in the first quarter of the previous year, with the number of active contracts growing by 31% to 2,200. The growth was primarily driven by the cloud service, which increased from UAH 105 million to UAH 192 million.
Thus, the total share of the digital business in Kyivstar’s revenue rose to 20.9% from 7.4% in the first quarter of 2025.
It is noted that capital expenditures, excluding license fees, amounted to UAH 2.9 billion, or $67 million, or 20.9% of revenue, compared to $51 million in the first quarter of 2025. Capital expenditure intensity for 2026 is expected to be within the range of 21%–24% of revenue (previously 23%–26%).
At the end of the quarter, the company had $353 million in free cash flow against gross debt of $487 million, while at the beginning of the quarter these figures stood at $456 million and $478 million, respectively. Free cash flow from operating activities amounted to $161 million for the quarter, compared to $128 million in the first quarter of 2025.
It is also noted that the market capitalization of Kyivstar Group, which is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, stood at $3.214 billion as of May 11.
Kyivstar noted that the Group has expanded its cooperation with SpaceX to include the resale of Starlink high-speed internet services for businesses. The number of customers who have already used Direct to Cell technology has exceeded 5 million, and the launch of Light Data is scheduled for later in 2026.
Also during the reporting period, Ukrainians chose the name “Syayvo” for the national language model that Kyivstar is developing jointly with the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
As reported, Kyivstar increased its EBITDA by 30% in 2025—to UAH 27 billion—amid a 30.3% rise in revenue—to UAH 48.2 billion, including a 23.1% increase in EBITDA in the fourth quarter of last year—to UAH 7.2 billion—on the back of a 30.1% rise in revenue—to UAH 13.5 billion.
