An 'apocalyptic' road to Druzhkivka with Ukraine's 24th Brigade
Current Time's Andriy Kuzakov rides toward a frontline city where Russian drones watch the supply routes, and the report found a far larger audience than the broadcaster's uploads usually do.
Radio Free Europe/Radio LibertyStory of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 224,093 views a day, 45 times a normal first day on this channel (4,977).
An 'Apocalyptic' Journey To A Ukrainian Frontline City
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty took its viewers down one road in eastern Ukraine, and far more of them came along than usual. "An 'Apocalyptic' Journey To A Ukrainian Frontline City" passed 199,000 views in its first 18 hours. A new video on the channel normally ends its whole first day near 5,000.
The reporter is Andriy Kuzakov of Current Time, the Russian-language network RFE/RL runs with Voice of America. He travels with soldiers of Ukraine's 24th Brigade toward Druzhkivka, a city in Donetsk region on the road between Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka. On this road the danger comes from above. Russian surveillance drones watch the supply routes, and the soldiers work to bring them down before they can guide an attack. According to the description, around 2,000 civilians reportedly remain as the attacks intensify, in a city that was home to roughly 55,000 people before the full-scale invasion. Maps of the area around Kramatorsk and Slovyansk show where the trip fits on the wider front line.
The comment section is full of questions more than arguments: why anyone stays in a place like this, how the soldiers carry the strain, whether a shotgun would be enough to stop a drone. Several viewers say the empty streets look like a video game, and one reaches back to the flying bombs of the Second World War for a comparison.
Drones run through the broadcaster's whole week. A day earlier it posted a report from Russian-occupied Oleshky, where heavy hexacopters carry food into a town without power, gas or running water. In Kuzakov's film they are the reason a short drive has become one of the most dangerous things a soldier can do.
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- Subscribers
- 876,000 ▲ 5,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 6,352,847
- Channel views, pace per day
- 604,693 (on a normal day: 856,449)
- Video published
- October 2, 2026
- Video views so far
- 199,045 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 224,093
The numbers
Here is how the frontline report's first hours compare with a usual start for the channel.
💡 Test your knowledge
In which Ukrainian region is the city of Druzhkivka?
Druzhkivka lies in Donetsk region, between the cities of Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka.
