Cape Cod deejay builds reputation for true-life stories in Ukraine.

Deejay Anne Levine, with WOMR in Provincetown, works from her Dennis home with radio equipment staged in a "war room."

Her battle is against the Russian army’s invasion of Ukraine, set in motion one year ago on Feb. 24. Her weapon is a Rode microphone and mixing board, headphones, computers and monitor screen. Her ammunition is the interviews she’s broadcast weekly after talking with people on the ground in Ukraine. She’s logged more than 50 radio shows interviewing doctors, soldiers, historians and even social influencers.

“I hope I can convey some of what it's like to be an average Ukrainian citizen with air raid sirens going off constantly,” Levine said. “Imagine the power goes out and the water goes off for indefinite stretches of months in the winter. No heat. No water. No light. No electricity. No TV. No nothing.”

Anne Levine started working with the Ukrainian station shortly after it was bombed.

Levine started working with Kraina FM, a Ukrainian station that retooled itself as the Radio of National Resistance after its tower in Kyiv was bombed on Feb. 24, 2022. The station’s general manager and programming director helped Levine get in touch with Ukrainian contacts and voice actors to translate interviews into English.

Kraina FM turned its focus from playing popular Ukrainian music to helping the war effort. It started broadcasting developments on the front, asked listeners to donate when the military needed clothing or computers, and ran children’s programs to give comfort to the war’s youngest victims.

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Now Kraina FM is working with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Levine still has contact with them, but her reach has spread and she’s been able to get interviews with experts in foreign relations, academics, and the military. She’s spoken with authors, historians, and television stars. Her guests have included Iuliia Mendel, President Zelenskyy’s former press secretary, and retired U.S. Army General Frederick Benjamin "Ben" Hodges III.

Levine's guests are often Ukrainians intimately involved in what's happening inside the country.

Many of Levine's guests are Ukrainians intimately involved with what’s happening in the country. Other guests are non-Ukrainians who are well-informed in the historical and cultural underpinnings of the conflict. The combination has given a clear picture of what Pacifica Radio’s Ursula Ruedenberg calls a “genuine, democratic revolution.”

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Ruedenberg, Pacifica’s affiliate network manager, edits the Ukraine 242 shows. Pacifica makes the show available free of charge to its 225 members as well as any other radio station that wants to air it. She was initially skeptical about the show’s impact, but now says Levine’s shows operate at a higher level than other shows available to American listeners.

“She’s got access to people with a little more to offer,” Ruedenberg said.

Anne Levine is working with U.S. photographer Patrick Patterson in Ukraine to add to the show.

Levine has started working with an American photographer who is on the ground in Ukraine. Patrick Patterson is sending her photographs, text messages and updates. His pictures are posted on Levine’s website, Ukraine 242.

A man smokes a cigarette in the hallway of a building, with its walls damaged and with dust and debris on the stairs. A baby stares through a glass window — the woman whose lap he sits upon holds a pacifier. The body of a victim exhumed from a mass grave lies at the feet of volunteers.

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One of Patterson’s photographs is taped to Levine’s work station. It shows a woman in a church holding a lit candle, looking skyward. The coffin of her Ukrainian soldier husband is in the background. Behind the coffin are the man’s comrades-in-arms, all holding candles.

“Patrick’s pictures are very personal,” Levine said. “Looking at something personal you can relate to, that’s what Patrick brings.”

Anne Levine has interviewed an American transgender woman who is a soldier and combat medic

Levine has also interviewed Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, an American transgender woman who is a soldier and combat medic in the trenches. Ashton-Cirillo first went to Ukraine in the spring of 2022 as a freelance journalist. She is now a member of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and in her fourth deployment, according to Levine.

Ashton-Cirillo is active on social media, posting photos and videos from the trenches, or zero line as she calls it. The drone sent up at 3 a.m. A bombed-out Holocaust memorial soon after an attack. Soldiers cleaning their weapons while a pot of borscht cooks on a stove. On Feb. 23, she was hit by shell fragments and lost part of her hand. Within 32 minutes she was talking with a CBS news anchor.

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“We wanted to get the message out that Ukraine is stronger than ever,” Ashton-Cirillo said, her face, right hand and wrist wrapped in bandages.

Both Levine and Ruedenberg say the Russian invasion is all about democracy, a nation’s right to self-determination and sovereignty, and is of global importance.

Listeners can learn what is actually going on with Anne Levine's show, according to one supporter.

The strength of Levine’s show is that it gives listeners a feeling for what’s actually going on, Ruedenberg said. It lets American listeners witness a struggle for democracy in the moment. It’s an amazing thing, especially since the country (U.S.) is so divided, she said.

Ruedenberg calls the struggle in Ukraine a genuine, grass roots, participatory democratic movement.

“Community radio is always tied to democracy movements,” she said. “It’s a real freedom struggle. Sometimes these people break news and they tell us things no one knows.”

Levine interviewed Richard Woodruff, a U.K. Citizen and founder of Front Line Kitchen before the BBC. Woodruff founded the Kitchen to serve food to frontline troops. She interviewed Ashton-Cirillo before any U.S. media outlets found her. And she interviewed Oleksandra Matviichuk weeks before she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Patterson, the photographer, plans to head to Bakhmut, which has recently been surrounded by Russian troops. He will send Levine audios of man-in-the-street interviews and the ambient sounds of the war. He’ll be looking at street fighting, which in some cities is block by block, Levine said.

Levine’s show has helped raise money for orphanages, surgical supplies for injured soldiers and civilians, animal shelters, meals. But convincing the public that Ukraine needs continued and robust U.S. support is paramount.

“The people I talk with say there is no diplomatic solution, only (a) military (one),” Levine said. “My opinion is the sooner the better. I hope Biden's visit signals something bigger is coming in the way of military support.”

Contact Denise Coffey at dcoffey@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter: @DeniseCoffeyCCT.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod DJ builds reputation for telling what's going on in Ukraine