MOSCOW, January 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's second largest mobile communications provider VimpelCom is to invest $50-60 million in Ukraine in the first quarter of 2006, a company senior official said Thursday.

The investment into the country's mobile phone infrastructure is intended to pave the way for the launch of the firm's BeeLine brand in Ukraine by this summer, according to Sergei Avdeyev, the company's vice-president for CIS operations. The company will start its Ukrainian operations in the east of the country.

VimpelCom's board of directors had originally failed to approve the firm's 2006 budget, after Norway's Telenor, the company's main shareholder, voiced objections to expansion into Ukraine.