A Ukrainian radio station remains on the warpath in Lviv

Lviv, Ukraine, 21 Mar 2022 (AFP) - Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, local radio station “Lvivska Khvylya” replaced its entertainment programs with a permanent special edition to inform its tens of thousands of listeners about the conflict in the west of the country.” We are a music and entertainment radio station, but we also do a lot of news because people need information, especially at this time,” explains Volodymir Melnyk, a 28-year-old broadcaster and presenter in a small studio in Lviv, 80 km from the Polish border. Among rock hits or Ukrainian patriotic music, Melnyk and his comrade Andryi Antoniuk, 41, comment on the news with humor on this local radio station, one of the first created after the fall of the Soviet Union. - Information chain - “In times of war, we need to convey the positive, we can laugh at Putin, at the Russian troops who are unable to take our cities, but we cannot have fun as before the war,” says Melnyk, who has been working for eight years on radio Lvivska Khvylya (the wave of Lviv, in Ukrainian) .February 24, when he started the Russian attack, the team of 40 people, including five journalists and a dozen presenters, went on the warpath for the second time in its history.In 2014, following the annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the conflict with the Moscow-backed pro-Russian insurgents in eastern Ukraine, radio varied its programs.” The war greatly affected our work because there is also a psychological factor that, at the beginning, prevented us from working,” says Marta Oliyarnyk, a 27-year-old journalist who hides her emotion behind her big round lenses. Even as professionals, “events do not leave us indifferent” .After 24 days of war, radio became an important link between the authorities and the population. The station reports to between 300,000 and 400,000 listeners a day, a figure that has doubled since the start of hostilities. The closure of schools in Lviv, needs for humanitarian aid, the situation in southern and eastern Ukraine and international statements: Oliyarnyk finds a balance between local and national news, according to her.The broadcaster broadcasts its own programmes from 7 am to 7 pm, when the This is based on the principle that the media, in times of war, play a crucial role in maintaining the morale of the population and supporting the war effort.Military or civilian casualties are only published to dropper.” These figures terrify us, we have experienced it personally, but we also try to give a lot of positive information such as the human and material losses of the enemy,” says Oliyarnyk. According to the journalist, the true human balance will only be known when the war is over. - “Critical infrastructures” - Several times a day, sirens interrupt the broadcasts.On Friday morning, technical director Vassil Pakouch, 31, had to sound the alarm from home, calling the population to go to shelters.On that day, the “Russian missiles” hit the Lviv airport neighborhood, although without leaving people dead, according to local authorities. From his small office, Vassil monitors the status of the dozens of telecommunications towers that broadcast radio broadcasts throughout western Ukraine and as far as east Kiev.The closest to the capital, on whose doors fighting is taking place, has been damaged twice by shelling. “Towers are critical infrastructures. When they are attacked, it is dangerous for the population because the connection is lost,” warns Vassil, showing the tower of Lviv next to the station. The engineer, who regularly climbs the tower to make repairs, says he is ready to do anything to restore the line in the event of a bombing.” We pray that this does not happen, but if they destroy it, I would raise an antenna to a tree if necessary,” he assures.CMD/BDS/MAS/en