BBC broadcasts news in Ukraine and Russia via shortwave radio frequencies

The British public broadcaster is once again broadcasting news bulletins via shortwave radio frequencies. Those frequencies can be picked up in Ukraine and parts of Russia. The BBC wants to give local residents access to journalistic coverage of the war in the region.

In a press release, the BBC writes that it will air its World Service newscasts twice a day. The first broadcast starts at 2 p.m. local time of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and can be heard on the 15735kHz radio frequency. This lasts until 4 p.m. local time. The second broadcast starts at 20:00 local time, lasts until 22:00 and can be heard on the 5875kHz radio frequency.

Britain’s public broadcaster withdrew its World Service shortwave news broadcasts on February 18, 2008, so it is now re-using the technology to provide Russian and Ukrainian residents with news about the war in Ukraine. According to Tim Davie, director-general at the BBC, there is a strong need for independent news coverage from the region. The public broadcaster also sees this in the number of Russian and Ukrainian visitors to the website.

The Russian version of the British news website had about 10.7 million visitors in the week of February 21-27, according to the BBC. That is three times more than in the same period last year, when the weekly average was 3.1 million visitors, according to the BBC. The English-language version of bbc.com was visited 423,000 times by Russian internet users from February 21 to 27, which is 252% more than the weekly average of a year earlier, according to the broadcaster.

The Ukrainian version of the BBC website was visited 3.9 million times from February 21 to 27, compared to 1.7 million in the same period last year. Also 154% more Ukrainians found their way to the English version of the website. The figures only include website visitors. News items consumed via social media are not included in the results, according to the BBC.