NEWSWATCH New York Times: In Bleak Ukraine City, a Duo’s Odd Experiments Win a Niche Online. In Luhansk, two men leverage YouTube fame to shed light on and report about the realities of life in Ukraine’s conflict-torn East
The New York Times covers online local coverage of the Russo-Ukrainian War in eastern Ukraine.
As Luhansk’s prospects looked ever bleaker, Mr. Pavlov and Mr. Kryukov emerged as quirky but candid guides to an unfamiliar war zone, an Internet voice for locals who drop their Russian g’s in homegrown accents and were stunned by the sudden outbreak of violence in their sleepy, rust-belt backwater.
Millions in Ukraine and Russia clicked to watch the two men film a grab-bag of homemade science experiments, wartime life hacks and answer other burning questions: Have pensions been paid yet? How can you charge your telephone from ordinary railroad tracks? And what happens when a lightning bolt hits a television set?
The conflict has cost Mr. Kryukov and Mr. Pavlov dearly: Their friends have fled, and they have had to scrounge for cash and search for medicine for ailing relatives. Their video archives from the last year are filled with the buzzing of fighter jets and the glow of house fires from nighttime shelling.