Russia offers $20 million for location of Ukrainian drone commander Robert Brovdi

Russian operatives have reportedly placed a $20 million bounty on the location of Robert Brovdi — the commander known as "Magyar" who leads Ukraine’s drone forces — prompting the Ukrainian unit to operate from highly secure, secret command centers.

Heightened secrecy after alleged bounty

Ukrainian drone units say the Kremlin has used post‑Soviet criminal networks to offer $20 million for information that would reveal Brovdi’s whereabouts. There has been no independent public confirmation from Russian authorities about the offer.

Reporters who visited an underground command center in southeastern Ukraine described strict anti‑tracking measures: phones were required to have location services off, put in airplane mode and sealed inside Faraday bags that block mobile, Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth and GPS signals. Teams were transported in vehicles with tinted windows to prevent tracking of their route.

Robert Brovdi, 51, has led the Ukrainian drone forces since June 2025. He and his unit say that, while drone personnel make up only 2.5 percent of Ukraine’s armed forces, they were responsible for roughly one third of Russian losses over the past year — a figure Brovdi has presented and which cannot be independently verified.

Before Russia’s full‑scale invasion, Brovdi was an international grain trader. His business background, Ukrainian officials say, shaped the way the drone units were organized: emphasis on rapid adaptation, logistical planning, data analysis and using minimal resources to achieve outsized effects.

Brovdi was born on August 9, 1975, in Uzhhorod and comes from the Hungarian minority — the origin of his callsign "Magyar." He joined the Ukrainian military in February 2022, at the outset of the Russian invasion that began on February 24, 2022.

Photo: press material from the event