Druzhkivka (, ; ) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It was previously a city of regional significance before the status was abolished. It serves as the administrative center of Druzhkivka urban hromada and is part of Kramatorsk Raion. Population of the city was As of April 2024, the city's population was over 31,000.
In 2014, Druzhkivka was temporarily captured during the War in Donbas by pro-Russian separatists.
The city is located at the confluence of the Kryvyi Torets and Kazennyi Torets rivers (the Seversky Donets basin), the distance to the city Donetsk is 80 km. There is a railway station. The distance to Druzhkivka from Donetsk is about 66 km (75 km by road, 72 km by rail). The distance to Kyiv is about 543 km (739 km by road, 656 km by rail).
The first mention of Druzhkovka dates back to 1781 (âÂÂInformation on the lands of the Yekaterinoslav GovernorateâÂÂ). Historical records indicate that a settlement named Druzhkivka was established in this area by 1781. From the late 19th through the 20th century, Druzhkivka grew into a mid-size industrial city with several large factories producing mining equipment and machinery, hardware, kitchen stoves, china tableware and bricks, as well as several clay-extracting quarries in the city's vicinity. In 1870, during the construction of the Kursk-Kharkiv-Azov Railway, Druzhkovka station was built 6 km north of the Parshakovka settlement, giving rise to a workers' settlement (which later included the settlement).
By the beginning of the 20th century, the village of Druzhkovka in the Bakhmut uezd of the Yekaterinoslav Governorate had several factories: an iron foundry and a steel foundry (the main product was rails, built by the French), a steel foundry and a mechanical plant (equipment for railways: carriages, springs, built by the Belgians), as well as a sugar factory (built in 1873). At that time, the village had a population of about 6,000 people. In 1893, the Donetsk Society of Railway and Steel Production, founded by the French, began building the Toretsk Metallurgical Plant. In 1896, Kuprin toured the Donetsk Basin with a correspondent's certificate. In May, he spent several days in the village. Druzhkovka, Yekaterinoslav province, getting acquainted with the local rail rolling plant and studying the working conditions of the workers there.
By 1913, Druzhkovka's population had reached 13,500. At the beginning of the 20th century, many peasants from the Oryol and Kursk provinces resettled here. Residents were served by two hospitals and four elementary schools. The village of Yakovlevsky had two churches and a Catholic church. After the February Revolution of 1917, the village was granted city status. The number of city council members was set at 32.
During the first five-year plans, the largest hardware plant in the USSR (1929), a power plant, and new workshops at the metallurgical plant were built. On October 27, 1938, the settlement of Druzhkovka received city status. By 1939, 32,000 people lived there, and the housing stock had tripled compared to 1913. There was a hospital and four first-aid stations, eight comprehensive schools, a workers' faculty, an evening department of a mechanical engineering technical school, a cinema, two clubs, and a stadium.
During World War II, Druzhkivka was occupied by the German army from 22 October 1941, to 6 February 1943, and again from 9 February to 6 September 1943. During their occupation, the SS killed many local Jews. A witness from the village described the SS hanging Jews along the railway.
The killing of the Jewish population was carried out by operational teams of the Security Police and the Security Service (SD), which followed the forward units of the Wehrmacht. In the Druzhkivka area, Sonderkommando 4b and Einsatzgruppe 6 operated. The German occupation authorities issued orders for the Jews to undertake forced labour and made it compulsory for them to wear identifying armbands featuring the Star of David. The earliest documented killings of Jews in Druzhkivka date back to December 1941. Local auxiliary police compiled the lists of people and then helped to arrange shootings.
By February 1942, a total of 148 Jews remained in Druzhkivka, mostly women, children and the elderly. Nearly all of them were shot dead by Germans within the period February 1942 to May 1943. The number and names of those killed, the sites and dates of the shootings, the perpetrators of the crimes and the stories of hiding and rescue have not been fully established to this day. Long after the Soviet (de)occupation of Druzhkivka on 6 September 1943, the repercussions of Nazi terror and violence haunted the surviving victims.
During the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine the town was captured in mid-April 2014 by pro-Russian separatists. The city was eventually recaptured by Ukrainian forces on 7 July 2014, along with Bakhmut.
On 4th February 2026 at least seven civilians were killed in a Russian artillery strike on Druzhkivka, in which Ukrainian officials said that Russia used cluster munitions.
Over 60% of the population works in industry. The city's main enterprises:
In 2010, industrial sales totaled 2 billion 640 million UAH. The machine-building plant accounted for the largest share (approximately 54%) of total sales. The hardware plant accounted for almost 14%, Vesko 14%, Greta 11%, and the mine administration and Kondratyevsky Refractory Plant each accounted for 6%.
In 2008 â UAH 48 million, including: UAH 32 million for education, UAH 26.4 million for healthcare, UAH 35.7 million for social protection, UAH 3.07 million for culture, UAH 2.37 million for housing and utilities, and UAH 8.56 million for administration. The main source of budget revenue is personal income tax, which accounts for over 80% of the budget.
In 2020 â UAH 402.7 million, the main source being tax revenues, which account for 58.7% of the budget (76.48% of which is personal income tax).
Druzhkivka station is served by 18 pairs of commuter trains and 10 trains. From here, you can travel directly to Kyiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Kryvyi Rih, and Ivano-Frankivsk. There are two train stations in Druzhkivka: Druzhkivka and 1057 km. National highway H-20 passes through Druzhkivka, where the bus station is located.
There are 21 city buses running in Druzhkovka, 14 suburban buses, and 3 intercity buses (not including routes passing through the city along the highway, but still entering it) (non-inbound) bus routes. The fare on public city bus routes is 6 hryvnias per trip as of June 9, 2021.
In Druzhkivka, tramway transport is operated by "KP Druzhkivka AvtoElectroTrans", which is partially provided by Druzhkivka City Council. Since 2015, the city's tram fleet has been actively updated. In 3 years, 9 TatraT3SU and TatraT3SUCS carriages, brought from the Czech Republic and Kharkiv, were transferred to the municipal enterprise. All carriages underwent major repairs in Kharkiv before arriving in the city. As of January 2019, the number of trams on the line is 4-8 carriages. There are 3 regular routes (1, 2 and 4), as well as the "Night" route on all city routes. On 1 November 2025, due to regular shelling, electricity shortages, the security situation, and the evacuation of the population, the city authorities decided to permanently suspend tram traffic.
Newspapers: "Druzhkovsky Rabochy", "Druzhkovka on the Palms+", "Druzhkovsky Mashinostroitel", "Nasha Druzhkovka", "Druzhkovka City".
From 1994 to 2004, the city's first independent newspaper, OKNO, was published. In 1997, the newspaper was recognized as the best regional publication in Ukraine at the All-Ukrainian Journalism Festival in Kyiv.
Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street, Oleksa Tykhy Street, Soborna Street, Skhidna Street, Mashinosbudivnyk Street, Oleg Koshevsky Street, Svobody Street, Kozatska Street, Mykola Mikhnovsky Street, Druzhby Street, Pedagogical Street, Lisova Street, Deputatskaya Street, Kosmonavtiv Street, Novosadova Street, Dzherelna Street, Engels Street, Sonechna Street, Kurchatova Street.
The population of Druzhkivka as of 1 June 2017 is 67 772 people.
Ethnicity as of the Ukrainian Census of 2001:
First language as of the 2001 census: