Russia is offering a US$20 million reward for information that would help locate Robert "Magyar" Brovdi, commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, per a Wall Street Journal report relayed by Ukrainska Pravda on September 28. The reward is routed through post-Soviet criminal networks.

The Kremlin's interest stems from drone effectiveness. Brovdi says his forces make up just 2.5% of Ukraine's troop strength but account for roughly a third of Russian losses over the past year. Russian courts have convicted him in absentia on terrorism charges; Le Monde separately reported an in-absentia life sentence and a $20 million bounty dating to March 2026.

Because of the threat, Brovdi and his subordinates keep phones in airplane mode inside Faraday cases that block Wi-Fi, mobile, Bluetooth and GPS. They travel in cars with blacked-out windows to secret command posts in southeastern Ukraine.

Brovdi says 79 members of "Magyar's Birds" have died since the full-scale war began, while claiming his forces killed or wounded 656 Russian soldiers for each of their own fallen. Born in 1975 in Uzhhorod, an ethnic Hungarian with no military training before 2022, he built the unit from a small volunteer team into a brigade.

The bounty shows how central drones have become to this war: a once-unknown commander now has a price on his head.