As the Ukrainian conflict continues to rage, the country’s government is looking to reduce Russian companies’ hold on its mobile market, according to media reports.

A minister confirmed to Bloomberg that the Ukrainian government would like to block Russian companies including MTS from getting their hands on 3G frequencies in a forthcoming spectrum auction.

And there was a threat by Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk (pictured) to sell one of the 3G licences to an operator from the EU for UAH1 ($0.077), as a means to counteract Russian dominance of the mobile market. His comments were reported by Reuters.

Last week, a law came into effect that allows the government to restrict Russian businesses in Ukraine.

However, it is arguable how effective such action will be in the country’s mobile market where VimpelCom-backed Kyivstar and MTS together control 75 per cent of mobile connections, according to GSMA Intelligence figures for Q2 2014.

In addition to a possible legal response from those operators, there is also the question of who would feel the pain most from any exclusion. Both VimpelCom and MTS have European and US investors, in addition to their Russian backers.

And Ukraine needs the cash that will be raised from a competitive 3G spectrum auction, as opposed to a contest that awarded frequencies to an EU operator for a token amount.

The government will have to weigh all these options as well as consider how many EU operators are likely to step forward.