SIMFEROPOL, August 08. /ITAR-TASS/. MTS Ukraine, a mobile communications operator, has begun roaming in the territory of Crimea, thus having recognised it is working in a different country, Crimea’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Polonsky told ITAR-TASS on Friday.

The MTS Ukraine Company has resumed its operations in Crimea upon a permission to use the technical roaming in networks of Russia’s new operator - K-telecom, which uses the brand of Vin-mobile.

“Realistically, thus the Ukrainian side confirms Crimea is no longer a territory of Ukraine, but a part of Russia, a foreign country,” the official said.

He continued saying “MTS-Ukraine as a mobile network is not working in Crimea any longer. If you request available networks, the list will not include MTS Ukraine. A mobile phone will list Kievstar, Life, or Win-Mobile, but not MTS Ukraine.”

Services of MTS Ukraine in Crimea are more expensive now.

“Users should realise that MTS Ukraine will charge roaming tariffs for its services now. Using the network will be equal to using services abroad,” he said.

By having allowed MTS Ukraine to use technical roaming of K-telecom, the Crimean authorities confirmed constituency of their policies, the deputy prime minister said.

“It is another proof it was not our initiative to have them leave Crimea. We have been doing everything we could to make sure all mobile communications operators worked normally in Crimea.”

MTS Ukraine told ITAR-TASS the company had the roaming services with the only operator “which has agreed for it.”

“It is a one-way roaming, which means K-telecom users will not be in the net. If the operator has new technical options to offer services, it will be using them,” the company said.

MTS Ukraine is the second-largest mobile operator in Ukraine with 17.74 million GSM subscribers. The company is fully owned by Russia's Mobile TeleSystems.