Russia offers US$20 million reward for information on Unmanned Systems Forces commander Magyar – WSJ

Russia has offered a US$20 million reward through post-Soviet criminal networks for information that could help locate Robert "Magyar" Brovdi, commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Details: The Unmanned Systems Forces said that, due to the high effectiveness of Ukrainian drones, the Kremlin has made Magyar one of its main targets for assassination. In addition, Russian courts have convicted the Ukrainian serviceman in absentia on fabricated terrorism charges and sentenced him to decades in prison.

Due to the serious threat to his life, the commander and his subordinates are forced to follow strict security measures.

The journalists said that before visiting a secret command post, they were asked to put their phones into flight mode and then place them into Faraday cases that block Wi-Fi, mobile, Bluetooth and GPS signals. They were driven to the secret location in cars with tinted windows to conceal the route to a site which, according to the journalists, is located somewhere in Ukraine's south-east.

Brovdi himself attributes the Russian focus on him to the scale of Russian military losses. He stated that the Unmanned Systems Forces account for just 2.5% of the total strength of the Ukrainian Armed Forces but are responsible for around a third of all Russian losses over the past year.

He also noted that the Russians had killed 79 members of Magyar's Birds since the beginning of the full-scale war. Their names are engraved on a wall near the entrance to the command centre. On the day of the interview, the Unmanned Systems Forces had killed or wounded 656 Russian soldiers for every one of their own fallen troops.

"I don't think this exchange rate is good enough," Magyar said.

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