Druzhkivka, eastern Ukraine —
The “Road of Life” – pockmarked, laden with torched vehicles and covered with netting to block drones – fights its name. A lifeline resupplying Ukrainian troops on the toughest of front lines, sometimes by robotic delivery, the stretch of asphalt from Druzhkivka to Kostyantynivka is purely about survival.
Ukrainian troops, often emerging exhausted after months pinned down in the same position, move almost exclusively by foot, passing the burned-out vehicles of those who chose to try to dodge the drones with speed, rather than by being small.
Drones now rule the war in Ukraine and the only protection from Russia’s…