Lithuanian radio station to inform Russian speakers about war in Ukraine

VILNIUS – A radio station in Lithuania resumed its operation in early August and will use medium-range waves to rebroadcast the Russian-language radio station Radio Pravda for Russian speakers in Europe and Asia, including Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

Speaking with BNS on Friday, Valdas Kaminskas, a spokesman for the Lithuanian Radio and Television Center (Telecentras), said the radio station in Sitkunai, Kaunas District, central Lithuania, had largely stopped broadcasting around a decade ago, but now resumed broadcasts in early August at the request of the Netherlands-registered radio station Radio Pravda. Information and educational information is broadcast every day, using medium-range radio waves, from 8 pm to midnight to reach listeners in Europe and even Asia.

"These are broadcasts for Russian-speaking audiences, the waves travel far, the broadcasts are evening broadcasts and the program is broadcast from 8 pm to midnight. As they say now, broadcasts are aimed against disinformation, against war, to compensate for Russian anti-Ukrainian propaganda. These radio broadcasts are mainly intended for this purpose", Kaminskas said.

In his words, broadcasts reach Ukraine, Belarus, the European part of Russia, but the signal goes even beyond the Urals, reaching Siberia, Central Asia and Kazakhstan.

In preparation for the broadcasts, Telecentras rebuilt and upgraded part of the infrastructure of the long-disused Sitkunai radio station.

The radio station near Kaunas came online in 1950 and then played a major role during the January, 1991 events when Soviet troops occupied the Lithuanian Radio and Television building and the TV Tower in Vilnius as it was temporarily used to broadcast news and images to the whole world.

The station stopped broadcasting medium-wave program in 2003 and continued to broadcast short-wave programs for some time before suspending operation completely around eight years ago.