Stay tuned. Russian UVB-76 radio station, rumored to be run by the military, broadcasts burst of mysterious messages

Meduza.io

Russia’s mysterious UVB-76 radio station, known for its constant buzzing and occasional cryptic messages, sent out a near record number of transmissions on December 11. Active since the mid-1970s and widely believed to be a numbers station operated by the Russian military, UVB-76 has sparked countless theories — ranging from its potential role as a “doomsday station” capable of triggering nuclear launches to merely a means for transmitting secret messages. Whatever its purpose, the station became noticeably more active after the Soviet Union’s collapse — and in the days leading up to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Here’s what we know about the latest messages.

The shortwave radio station known as UVB-76 or “The Buzzer,” which typically broadcasts a constant buzzing sound and occasionally transmits cryptic messages in Russian, sent out 24 messages last Wednesday. “On December 11, 2024, UVB-76 carried out the most ‘verbose’ broadcast in its history,” reported a VKontakte group dedicated to monitoring the station.

UVB-76 is Russia’s most famous numbers station and has been broadcasting since the mid-1970s. Normally, the station transmits white noise, sometimes interrupted by short messages containing numbers and seemingly unrelated words (often names), the first letters of which spell out specific words.

Each transmission begins with a callsign, made up of the first letters of names or words. The name “UVB-76” is believed to have been the callsign of the station's intended recipient until 2010. Since December 2020, the callsign “NZhTI” (made up of the initials Nikolai, Zhenya, Tatyana, Ivan) has been used frequently, though other callsigns also appear.

The YouTube channel Uvb-76 Voice Message uploaded nine recordings of the December 11 messages.

All 24 transmissions on December 11 took place between 9:09 a.m. and 5:14 p.m. Moscow time. A total of 30 words were broadcast, including “azbuka” (alphabet), “nanayka” (Nanai), “pankosvod” (punk compilation), “neuprugiy” (inelastic), “bilyard” (billiards), and “geenna” (Gehenna). Some words were nonsensical, such as “onyerorust” and “vtuzotyuk.” In several messages, word pairs appeared together, for example: “bezotkhodny” (zero-waste) and the nonsensical “krizotyutya,” or the nonsensical “koshomokh” and “banderolka” (small parcel).

The UVB-76 radio station is thought to be operated by the Russian military from either the Moscow, Leningrad, or Pskov region — though this has never been officially confirmed. Its purpose remains a mystery. One theory suggests it’s part of the Soviet-era Dead Hand, or Perimeter system, a nuclear fail-safe mechanism that would trigger a launch of nuclear weapons if the broadcast were to stop, earning UVB-76 the nickname “Doomsday station.” Another theory posits that the station is used to transmit secret messages.

---

The bitter truth is that events in Russia affect your life, too. Help Meduza continue to bring news from Russia to readers around the world by setting up a monthly donation.

---

According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the station’s activity increased after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Before 1992, words and phrases were broadcast only once every few years, but amateur radio enthusiasts noted a rise in the frequency of voice transmissions in the years that followed. By the 2000s, the station was sending messages weekly, sometimes even daily. On June 5, 2010, UVB-76 fell completely silent for 24 hours before resuming broadcasts. Over the years, it has transmitted a range of strange sounds, including shuffling footsteps, fragments of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, and, on one occasion, a woman’s scream.

Coherent phrases occasionally appear in the broadcasts, such as “The agronomist is going out of the gate” and “Inflatable life raft,” reported Rossiyskaya Gazeta, The first fully comprehensible messages — ones not formed from the initial letters of words — were transmitted on December 24, 2017, when the station broadcast rap music and shouts of “Glory to Ukraine!” Most likely, the frequency was hijacked.

UVB-76 was quite active in the lead-up to Russia’s February 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that it broadcast messages throughout January and February, with “a particularly large number of codes” sent in the days just before the start of the full-scale war. On February 22, the words “nyukhostikh” and “neuderzhimy” (unstoppable) were transmitted, while on February 23, messages included “muzhoshchelk,” “chaykhana” (teahouse), and “shikonast.” On the day the invasion began, however, the station transmitted no messages at all.

Plans for communications

• Putin orders military to build integrated information network for battlefield coordination, but Z-bloggers say Russia has failed here, so far

Cover photo: Alexandr Sadkov / Unsplash