Donetsk, Feb 14 - DAN. Suspended operation of Vodafone (MTS-Ukraine) mobile operator in the Donetsk People’s Republic has nothing to do with the company’s electricity debt, DPR Communications Minister Viktor Yatsenko told Donetsk News Agency on Wednesday.

“Vodafone electricity bills have nothing to do with fact that the operator’s service is still unavailable in DPR. They have to repair the broken cable in their territory which caused the outage,” Yatsenko said.

Earlier, deputy head of the so-called Donetsk regional military-civilian administration Viktor Remskiy told a Ukrainian television channel that the Ukrainian operator had suspended its service in DPR due to its debt to the Republic’s energy companies.

Vodafone signal disappeared in DPR on 11 January afternoon because of cable breakage in frontline Elenovka area. DPR Communications Ministry asked the company to help repair the network. At present, DPR-based Phoenix is the only available mobile operator in the Republic.*jk