On 27 June 2022, a Russian missile hit the “Amstor” shopping mall, one of the most crowded places in downtown Kremenchuk (Poltava region), and took the lives of 28 Ukrainians. At that moment, the team of a local radio station “Autowave” was in the office, less than a kilometer away from the mall. “We were at work when the missile hit “Amstor”. And if I said I wasn’t scared, I’d be lying. Truly, it was terrifying. It was terrifying because you did not know whether the missile would hit the target next to you, whether you would be able to continue working and providing the listeners with information,” – “Autowave” radio host Tata Husar shared her feelings.

Kremenchuk is regularly suffering from Russia’s missile attacks mainly targeting the largest oil refinery in Ukraine. At the same time, Kremenchuk has become one of the most powerful hubs for internally displaced persons. According to the Department of Social Protection of the Population, as of 1 December 2022, more than 33,000 internally displaced persons were officially registered in Kremenchuk. This is a very high figure, given that the population of Kremenchuk is 217,000 (as of 2021).

Working for both the Kremenchuk community and internally displaced Ukrainians during the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, “Autowave” was the only local media informing the residents about air raids. Yet, in six months, the “Autowave” team had to struggle a lot to ensure the operations of the radio station.

Russia started systematically attacking Ukraine’s energy system causing regular power cuts. That is why, “Autowave” needed a generator to keep working. However, since it lost all its advertising revenue and the advertising market was recovering very slowly, it could not afford purchasing a generator and had to share it with other local companies. This significantly affected the work of the media. The employees had to work around the power cuts and availability of generator or work from home.

Despite these challenges and constant fear for their own lives, the “Autowave” team continues working selflessly and takes on new projects to keep providing the Kremenchuk community with high-quality local news.