Yatsenko Victor Vyacheslavovich

Yatsenko Victor Vyacheslavovich

Yatsenko Victor Vyacheslavovich is the Minister of Communications of the Donetsk People's Republic.

Biography

Yatsenko Victor Vyacheslavovich native of the Kherson region of Ukraine.

Worked as the IT specialist, owned the company which supplied the equipment for the IP telephony and the solution based on the Asterisk system.

Everything changed in May, 2014. The tragedy in Odessa and death of dozens of peace protesters forced Yatsenko to give up the business and went to be at war the volunteer to Donbass. Yatsenko appeared in the city of Sloviansk under Igor Strelkov's command.

From the beginning of resistance on Donbass the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) began "merge" a compromising evidence on rebels: on the Internet there were records of negotiations which they conducted by mobile phones. Here also Yatsenko's skills were useful: using the solution "Asteriks" familiar to it he organized the protected OpenVPN network for enciphering of telephone negotiations.

"I told Igor Ivanovich Strelkov that I can solve a problem of enciphering of telephone negotiations, - Victor Yatsenko remembers. - He asked nothing me, even passports, just told: "Make". Probably, he saw in me the patriot".

Yatsenko's knowledge became more and more valuable to rebels. At that time in the middle of 2014 in the DPR there was no central administration, and the territory of the unrecognized republic was separated between different field commanders: Igor Strelkov in Sloviansk, Igor Bezler in Horlivka, etc.

Yatsenko was succeeded to establish relation between them.

"During the Great Patriotic War Joseph Stalin issued the order: not to shoot operators at all as not with whom to replace them", - likes to remember Yatsenko's history.

In November, 2014 Victor Yatsenko becomes the Minister of Communications of the DPR. However, the first task which he had to solve on a new post was far from the industry of telecommunications. Selected with Ministry of Communications the building of business center SkyTower in the center of Donetsk: it was constructed, but not brought into operation yet.

Therefore Yatsenko was necessary to resolve issues with heating of the new building and so forth. However, it was worth it: the office of the minister is on the top floor of glass business center from where the great view of Donetsk opens, including "Donbass Arena" - the stadium constructed for Champion passing in 2012 in Donetsk of Europe on soccer.

Then Yatsenko was necessary to solve more complex problem: the young republic needed to get rid of the Ukrainian telecom operators and to create own. The first under distribution Kyivstar got (enters into the Veon/Vimpelcom group which in Russia works under a brand Beeline). At the beginning of 2015 the authorities of the DPR made the decision to introduce external management in the operator and to take its office under control. The network of Kiyestar ceased to work.

The choice of Kyivstar spoke simply: from three Ukrainian GSM operators (including MTS Ukraine and "Astelit") it in Donbass had least of all subscribers - 6% of the general subscriber base. In inheritance from Kyivstar the authorities of the DPR had its Donetsk switch of production of Ericsson.

Kyivstar deleted licenses and passwords from switch software. Naturally, itself Ericsson was not going to cooperate with the authorities of the unrecognized republic. Experts in the field of telecommunications expressed doubts that the authorities of the DPR will be able to start own network on the equipment which is selected at Kyivstar.

"Nobody believed that we will be able "to recover" Ericsson, but we made it", - Yatsenko remembers. With software of Ericsson it was cracked. Own operator was started under the name "Phoenix". For start of the operator Yatsenko received the TT prize gun from the head of the DPR Alexander Zakharchenko. The Donetsk switch of Ericsson became a basis and for the Lugakom cellular network created in the next Luhansk People's Republic (LPR).

During the same time frame of Ministry of Communications of the DPR made the contribution to liberation of Debaltseve - strategically important locality on border of the DPR and LPR. For it Yatsenko is awarded a colonelcy of armed forces of the republic for this reason he also walks in a military uniform now. Received one more award weapon for the same transaction of Yatsenko - a Makarov pistol.

At the beginning of 2017 new testing fell to lot of Ministry of Communications of the self-proclaimed republic: the authorities of the DPR and LPR made the decision on introduction of external management at the enterprises continuing to work under the Ukrainian jurisdiction. Including under such confiscation also local branches of Ukrtelecom - the basic in Ukraine of the operator of the fixed telephony and the Internet access belonging to the SCM group of Rinat Akhmetov got.

Owners of Ukrtelecom were prepared for confiscation: Was "nullified" by software on the equipment Juniper, Huawei and Cisco together with licenses. The network of Ukrtelecom ceased to work. However, having entered premises of Ukrtelecom, the staff of Ministry of Communications of the DPR quickly enough managed to recover operation of the equipment.

It turned out that a part of remote software of Juniper remained in "dump" and it managed to be recovered. The configuration to the equipment Juniper was forgotten to be deleted from a reserve SSD disk. And the operating system for Huawei was found on torrents.

There was a problem with the equipment Cisco: the debug loop which in the CIS was not anywhere was necessary. But the Donetsk engineers managed "solder" independently it, Yatsenko is praised. Based on Ukrtelecom in the DPR the Komtel company earned.

Together with Ukrtelecom activity was stopped also by the Trimob 3G-operator belonging to it: its work was not recovered. Then the DPR was left by one more mobile operator - "Astelit" whose sovladelets was Rinat Akhmetov earlier. In 2015 SCM sold the share in Astelita to the Turkish Turkcell, but Yatsenko is sure that Akhmetov through Turkcell saved influence on mobile operator.

Thus, the cellular market of the DPR is separated between two cellular the operator: to the Ukrainian MTS continuing to work under laws of Ukraine and local Phoenix. Both operators work only in the GSM standard, i.e. possibilities of mobile transfer are limited at them to EDGE technology. MTS has 1.4 million subscribers, Phoenix has 500 thousand.

At the same time if SIM cards of MTS freely are on sale in stalls and shops, then Phoenix SIM cards can be purchased only in post offices and only by the passport. There is no communication between networks of two operators too: Phoenix though uses numbering in the Ukrainian code, to subscribers of Ministry of Communications operator of the DPR appoints numbers independently.

To call from abroad on numbers of Phoenix, it is necessary to dial number of transit node in Rostov, and then already - number of the necessary subscriber. But it is possible to call from Phoenix and Russia (will be will be defined the Rostov number), and any other country of the world. The exception is made by Ukraine: Yatsenko claims that in Ukraine all attempts of Phoenix to come to their telephone networks through intermediaries block.

Phoenix has no roaming too: the roaming agreement at the operator is signed only about CrimeaTelecom from the Republic of Crimea, but to start work still adjustment of a billing system is required.

With numbers "Komtela" it is simpler: they were distributed at Ukraine and to call on them from Russia and other countries perhaps. But besides communication with Ukraine at the operator is absent.

Also the certain trunk operator was created - the Ugletelekom company which was earlier servicing coal mines became base for him. In the Ukrainian time Donetsk region had trunk channels only to "continental" Ukraine, now Ugleteky stretched three channels to the Rostov region. With which of the Russian operators these joints are set, Yatsenko does not speak.

Also Ugletelekom constructed a trunk ring with LPR. Taking into account channels to Ukraine the total power of trunk channels "Ugletelekom" was 200 Gibt / page in the spring. For comparison: the Rostov region has a total capacity of channels - 120 Gbps. However, for the present moment channels with Ukraine are switched-off.

The interlocutor of CNews in one of the Russian telecommunication companies says that by Ministry of Communications of the DPR actively suggested to make a joint with their channels in the Rostov region, but he doubts that someone from large telecom operators decided on it.

Branches of other Ukrainian telecommunication operators passed under jurisdiction of the DPR. Including the Volya local branch, the largest operator of cable television in Ukraine, passed under control of local businessmen.

In networks of cable television Ukrainian channels are absent: there are only Russian, Donetsk also channels from other Post-Soviet countries. The authorities of the DPR brought "order" and to radio TV, including own digital on-air broadcasting was started. On air of Donetsk it is possible to catch both local, and Russian TV channels.

Based on local branch of Ukrpochta own enterprise "Mail of Donbass" was created. The enterprise has 220 own departments, it already managed to issue own brands and envelopes, including with the died field commanders of the republic. Victor Yatsenko is an apologist of Open Source: the first transition to the open source software there began the Ministry of Communications and just Mail of Donbass.

Walking across Donetsk, the correspondent of CNews detected the new building: Center of rendering administrative services. Inside there were a spacious premises with columns, operators and total absence of visitors.

The center was started before war, but it was not necessary to the new authorities: departments of the self-proclaimed republic do not give it access to the registers. It is no wonder that the Minister of Communications is disliked there. One of the staff of the center spoke of Yatsenko as "about the person from Moscow".

Yatsenko says that the Ministry of Communications of the DPR intends to open own centers of rendering state services based on post offices: they will collect documents as "front offices" and to transfer them to the present center in Donetsk which will become some kind of "back office".

You should not be surprised that the SSU accused Victor Yatsenko of treachery: in Ukraine he is put on the wanted list, and in the Kherson region is seized its property. In an office at Yatsenko portraits of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Alexander Zakharchenko and other famous political figures and also the coat of arms and the cancelled Kherson people's republic hang. Yatsenko hopes that times will come and he still will return to native places, but only when there is already other state"^[1].

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