$20M bounty: Russian criminal networks hunt Ukraine's drone chief

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Ukrainian use of drones has proven pivotal in the country’s defense against Putin’s forces.

Using both airborne and ground vehicles, the Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine have made it impossible for the Russian forces to gain a decisive edge on the battlefield, and in 2026, the Ukrainian drone forces, under the command of Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, have made life miserable inside Russia as well.

Brovdi, an ethnic Hungarian former grain trader from Ukraine’s Transcarpathia, runs Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, the service branch that coordinates Kyiv’s drone campaign – a campaign that has wreaked havoc on Russia, and now the Kremlin is reportedly trying to get Magyar taken out.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Kremlin has put out a $20 million reward for information on Brovdi’s whereabouts and is circulating the offer through post-Soviet criminal networks. The Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces have confirmed the figure.

A small branch inflicting a third of Russia’s losses

Brovdi told WSJ his branch makes up about 2.5% of the Ukrainian Armed Forces but is credited with roughly a third of Russian personnel losses over the past year.

In the WSJ, Brovdi told the reporters that, as of the day of the interview, the Russians had managed to kill 79 of his troops.However, 656 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded for every one of Brovdi’s fallen soldiers.

The names of the fallen Ukrainian soldiers are inscribed on a wall near the entrance to the command center.

Life sentence in absentia

Russian prosecutors have moved in parallel to the reward. A Russian military court sentenced Brovdi to life in prison in absentia on March 27, 2026, on 46 charges including terrorism, causing civilian deaths and carrying out attacks resulting in significant material damage, Daily News Hungary reported.

The central charge stems from a March 2025 highway explosion in the Kursk region that killed Channel One journalist Anna Prokofieva.

The verdict specifies that Brovdi would serve the first ten years in prison and the remainder in a high-security penal colony if apprehended.

Brovdi volunteered for Ukrainian forces in February 2022 and built up a small drone team that grew into a regiment and is now the 414th Strike Drone Brigade, known as “Magyar’s Birds.”

He was appointed commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces in June 2025.

$20M bounty: Russia uses criminal networks to find Ukraine's drone chief