WSJ: Russia offers $20 million reward for capture of Ukrainian drone commander Robert ‘Magyar’ Brovdi

The Ukrainian military’s Unmanned Systems Forces told The Wall Street Journal that Russian authorities had offered a $20 million reward through criminal networks across the former Soviet Union for information that could help locate the force’s commander, Robert “Magyar” Brovdi.

Brovdi told the newspaper that drone forces accounted for roughly a third of all Russian battlefield casualties over the past year. He said his units had lost 79 service members since the war began and had killed or wounded 656 Russian troops for every one of their own killed.

The threats have led Brovdi and his troops to take extra security precautions. For the interview, The Wall Street Journal reporter had to turn off his phone’s location services and put it in a Faraday bag that blocks cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS signals. He was driven to the command center in a car with tinted windows.

Brovdi is a native of Uzhhorod and is of Hungarian descent. He worked in the grain trade before the war and volunteered to fight after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. In May 2022, he founded “Magyar’s Birds,” an aerial reconnaissance unit that eventually grew into the 414th Separate Unmanned Systems Brigade.

Brovdi was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine in May 2025 and took command of the Ukrainian military’s Unmanned Systems Forces a month later. In Russia, Magyar has been sentenced in absentia to life in prison. He faces 46 criminal charges, including “terrorist attacks that caused civilian deaths and significant property damage.”