Drone Boss Madyar: At $878 To Kill 1 Orc, "Metal+Plastic For Dead Russians Is Best Exchange Rate"

The commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems (ie, drone) forces is a financial guy, a successful former global grain trader - and it shows. His approach to war is methodical, quantitative - and merciless. Which means he analyzes situations, sets strategically impactful goals - and determines how to achieve them. 

In the case of the war against Russia's invasion, he has determined the Kremlin's weak points - conscripting and equipping enough soldiers - and then devised a strategy to degrade its capacity to keep at it. His approach is working: for three months now, Ukraine has killed or severely wounded more troops than the Kremlin can replace. The remorseless logic of his math is winning. JL

The Economist reports:

Robert "Magyar" Brovdi, Commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, said wiping out one Russian soldier costs US$878 in matériel and that the Unmanned Systems Forces wipe out 400 Russians for every one Ukrainian. Since the start of the winter, Ukrainian drones have killed or incapacitated 8,776 more soldiers than Russia has replaced which continues to gain little ground in return for its losses. His soldiers are ordered to target personnel, rather than armor or other equipment, 30% of the time. Russia can only train and equip so many recruits; “We need to exhaust the Russian army beyond its maximum capacity.” In December, Brovdi’s figures turned in Ukraine’s favor. "We should be swapping plastic and metal for dead Russians. It's the best exchange rate."

Robert "Magyar" Brovdi, Commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, has said that wiping out one Russian soldier costs US$878 in matériel. He has also said the Unmanned Systems Forces currently wipe out 400 Russians for every one Ukrainian.

Quote: "We should be swapping plastic and metal for dead Russians. It's the best exchange rate."

Details: Brovdi said that units from the Unmanned Systems Forces currently wipe out 400 Russians for every one Ukrainian, and each kill costs US$878 in matériel.

He insists on having a backup for every piece of equipment – a lesson learnt from several incidents in which he almost died – and said that thanks to his strict safety protocols, the overall casualty rate in his unit is only 1%. 

 

The road to the command point is rough, though the minivan’s blacked-out windows hide the details. On arrival its doors slide open to reveal the entrance to a world buried deep underground. Inside, one corridor is lined with two decks of Japanese-style sleeping pods. Behind a second corridor lies a gym. Wall after wall of screens relay live data feeds: kill chains, missions, enemy losses. A gallery of famous Ukrainian paintings hangs among missiles and explosives. A snuff video of Russian soldiers in their last moments of life runs on a loop next to an expressionist stone sculpture of a man’s face.  

The darkly eccentric atmosphere is in keeping with the character of the man in charge. Before the invasion Robert “Madyar” Brovdi (pictured) was a wheeler-dealer grain broker. Now the 50-year-old commander of Ukraine’s unmanned forces is a weathered warrior and the lead architect of a strategy to target drone power at individual Russian soldiers. Four years into the war, Ukraine’s central challenge has become not so much holding territory as removing Russians faster than the Kremlin can recruit them. For the first time, thanks in large part to Mr Brovdi’s efforts, this might now be happening. 

Mr Brovdi analyses the figures in a windowless three-metre-square cubby-hole, chain-smoking cigarettes and sipping Fortnum & Mason tea, a nod to his prior life fraternising with the rich in London auction-houses. Russian losses have increased substantially since he took over last summer, aided by a revamped, gamified system that now prioritises enemy infantry. December marked a turning point, the first month when verified Russian losses to Ukrainian drones exceeded recruitment. Since the start of the winter, Ukrainian drones have killed or incapacitated at least 8,776 more soldiers than Russia has replaced. Russia continues to gain little ground in return for its losses. Even on its most successful axis, near the town of Kostiantynivka in the Donbas, it has taken just 23% of the territory called for in its winter campaign plan. 

Mr Brovdi’s drone brigade, codenamed “Madyar’s birds”, claims it has been responsible for a sixth of the Russian losses. The wider unmanned-forces grouping he now controls accounts for more than a third. Those forces make up just 2% of the Ukrainian army’s headcount. 

At the December peak, enemy losses reached 388 a day, equivalent to the assault component of an entire battalion. “If a battalion has no infantry left, the Russians don’t disband it but throw desk officers to the front,” Mr Brovdi says. “They are the easiest targets, because they can’t fight.” His soldiers are ordered to target personnel, rather than armour or other equipment, at least 30% of the time. Russia can only train and equip so many recruits; Mr Brovdi likens it to a cow, and his units to farmers. “We need to keep milking this cow, the Russian army, for everything it’s worth, exhausting it beyond its maximum capacity.”

Photograph: AP

An ethnic Hungarian from Ukraine’s western borderlands, Mr Brovdi joined the war as a civilian volunteer. His rise was improbable but no accident. Applying business instincts to battlefield problems, he helped to develop Ukraine’s earliest drone capabilities. The first breakthrough came in the summer of 2022, when he was fighting on the Kherson front. The Ukrainians were outgunned and, worse, had no idea where the Russians were firing from. Mr Brovdi, still an inexperienced soldier, remembered a drone he had bought his son on a business trip in Asia, and had some brought to the trenches. They were crude, but good enough to spot hidden Russian tanks. The future commander began passing coordinates to a nearby artillery brigade over Discord, a social-media app. He had created Ukraine’s first drone kill chain. 

A year later Mr Brovdi and his disciples had been transferred to Bakhmut, then the war’s main killing ground. One colleague, a former taekwondo champion known as Klym, had a friend who had competed in races of first-person-view drones. He suggested the fast, agile machines could carry small munitions. The team began hanging water-filled condoms from trees and trying to hit them with drones. Soon they were taping American mk-19 grenades to the frames. This became the cornerstone of a “line of drones” reconnaissance-and-strike kill-zone concept, which Mr Brovdi later championed to offset Ukraine’s infantry shortage.

Photograph: Getty Images

The bunker’s hundred-odd screens show how far operations have progressed. Every mission, whether drone strike or electronic-warfare session, is logged and verified by video, then fed into business-intelligence software that Mr Brovdi repurposed from his days as a grain trader. “The principles are the same,” he says. “I asked my guys to swap grain type, tonnage and truck numbers for weapons, shifts and ammunition.” The killing is managed closer to the front. Teams operate 3-5km behind the line, overseen only by battle captains back at headquarters. 

Mr Brovdi says the unit has an ecosystem of 15 interlocking functions, from jamming to surveillance, mine-laying and explosive production. It is a concept nato generals have yet to grasp, he says. “When the Americans come—and they come to us like bees to honey—they ask, ‘Which drone is best?’ I tell them the best drone is an ecosystem. For one pilot to make a kill, a whole machine must work behind him.”

Mr Brovdi’s critics say his success hinges on the unconditional support and funds he has received since taking over as drone chief. Ukraine’s armed forces usually operate under constant shortages. His predecessor, who was less close to Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander-in-chief, never enjoyed the same resources. Mr Brovdi counters that Ukrainian soldiers should not be waiting for drones, but that the drones should be ready and waiting for them. He insists on having a backup for each piece of equipment, a lesson learned in several near-death experiences, and says his strict safety protocols keep his unit’s cumulative casualty rate at just 1%.  The unmanned-systems forces now extract 400 Russian lives for just one Ukrainian, he claims, and each kill costs $878 in materiel.  “We should be swapping plastic and metal for dead Russians,” he says. “It’s the best exchange rate.”

Mr Brovdi’s battlefield kill videos, posted on social media with slapstick chase music, have made him a controversial figure. Some allege that such videos violate the laws of war. He dismisses the criticism. “I don’t experience any moral reservations at all. None,” he says. “A man with a rifle in his hand on my land is coming to kill me. I kill him or he kills me. Millions of Ukrainians, my mother included, draw strength from what we do.” 

That single-minded focus is giving Ukraine hope. Whether it will be enough to force Vladimir Putin to stop his war is another question. December was the first time Mr Brovdi’s figures turned in Ukraine’s favour. In the year before that, Russian forces had grown by over 100,000 men. Russia’s president seems to have no exit strategy. “Let’s first see if we can keep the pace up this coming year,” says Mr Brovdi. “I have no rose-tinted fantasies that this war is about to end.”