The drone attacks that the grey-bearded 50-year-old oversees from the bunker -- in a secret location in Ukraine -- are recorded and analysed, for him to develop strategies to stop the Russian invasion.The secretive and unlikely head of Ukraine's unmanned systems forces, whose recent strikes have embarrassed the Kremlin, grumbles that he does not like interviews, but his face lights up when the conversation turns to maths and war."Numbers are the foundation of war. Everything starts there. Anyone who ignores this cannot play this game. They will be followers rather than leaders," Brovdi told AFP. Better known by his call-sign of Madyar, Brovdi was a wealthy grain trader with no military background when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.He volunteered to fight, then set up his own drone unit -- "Madyar's Birds" -- well before many had realised the full importance of the technology, quickly earning plaudits inside the military.Zelensky appointed him in June 2025 to command the army's overall unmanned systems forces.
AFP got access to the launch of long-range drone strikes © Genya SAVILOV / AFP
His path reflects how Ukraine has leveraged innovation to fight Russia's more conventionally powerful army."I simply brought my accounting system with me to the war. We took the names of grain varieties from the table and entered the types of drones and ammunition there," he told AFP.Brovdi has masterminded some of the biggest attacks on Russia, with long-range drone strikes on oil and military facilities chipping away at Vladimir Putin's war chest.These attacks have made Madyar a priority target for Russia, he says, forcing him into secret underground bunkers.On a visit to one site, AFP journalists had to follow strict protocols, including a ride in a car with blacked-out windows.'Dangerous, committed'Ukrainian artwork and drone carcasses provide an eclectic decor to the interior of Brovdi's underground bunker, from where he commands a unified force of some of Ukraine's highest-ranking drone units.He receives a stream of calls in his windowless office, stepping in and out to speak to teams hunched over screens in a command post.
