The completion of the deal on the sale by the Veon group, which includes the Ukrainian operator Kyivstar, of the Russian subsidiary VimpelCom was delayed due to unforeseen difficulties, at present it is expected in the next month or two, president of Kyivstar Oleksandr Komarov said.

"The move to withdraw from Russia turned out to be difficult not only in terms of making a decision, but also difficult in terms of its implementation ... But, I hope, this is a matter of one or two months to complete the deal," he said in an interview with Interfax -Ukraine.

Komarov recalled that a year ago he "had the recklessness" to say that it was impossible for such a large infrastructure company as Veon to work simultaneously in Ukraine and Russia, but the company's management subsequently made exactly the same decision that was announced in November last year.

The head of Kyivstar specified that such a decision means giving up half of the business.

"Veon without Russia and Veon with Russia are two completely different businesses. I think this is a very correct step, although it is an economically difficult step," Komarov said.

He added that during the business trip to Washington and work with the Veon team, he emphasized the importance of accelerating the exit from the Russian market.

"Because these are issues of our investments, our national security. We need the trust of Ukrainian institutions and a step towards withdrawing from Russia," the head of Kyivstar said.

According to him, the difficulty in the implementation of the transaction lies in its coordination with the regulators of various countries, since Veon has seven licenses, as well as with the imposed sanctions.

"The last (obstacle), which we didn't even take into account, is related to Euroclear. This agreement (built) without money, this is an exchange of debts in order not to pay anything in the Russian Federation. But Euroclear cannot cooperate with some Russian institutions, because they have limitations," Komarov gave an example.

"When we withdraw, you will need to do a separate interview with me, with representatives of Veon, so that we can tell you about this thriller," the president of the largest Ukrainian telecom operator added.

He stressed that at present the whole situation with the work of Kyivstar in Ukraine is very transparent. "That is, we are fully embedded in the legislative field of Ukraine and meet all the requirements. In addition, under the martial law, we are fully integrated into all elements of national security - from network management to cyber defense," the head of the company said.

He also emphasized that Veon does not have a controlling shareholder, and in addition to sanctioned persons, there are also much respected investors in the ownership structure, such as Prosperity Capital.

"This is how the historical ownership structure of this company has developed. We have no influence from these sanctioned persons and no connection with them. They are completely cut off from Veon, cut off from LetterOne, which owns these shares," Komarov stated.

Commenting on an open letter from the Shah Capital hedge fund, which owns approximately 4-5% of Veon shares, dated the end of April this year with a proposal to spin off Kyivstar from Veon, the company president noted that this is the position of this shareholder - he sees local or international IPOs of operating companies as the right course of action.

"It is certainly too early to discuss this phase during the war, but I also personally think that this is the right development of events. Because for Kyivstar, it allows emphasizing the value, on the one hand, of this company, and on the other hand, to solve or alleviate some structural issues," Komarov expressed his opinion.

At the same time, he pointed out that Veon did not comment on this proposal.