A Moscow law enforcement agency on Sunday opened an investigation into “war crimes” purportedly committed by the top commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) – the branch of the Ukrainian military responsible for the destruction of hundreds of Russian tanks and other heavy weapons, and the death or severe injury of thousands of Russian soldiers, every month.
On Dec. 5, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation placed Major Robert “Magyar” Brovdi on an international wanted list for terrorism and accused him of complicity in a March 26 drone strike killing Russian ‘news’ reporter Anna Prokofieva in Russia’s western Kursk region.
Prokofieva, 35, had been performing field work with a camera crew employed by Russia’s state-controlled Channel One television program. According to follow-up reports by that channel, Prokofieva died after the vehicle was traveling in struck a landmine near the village Demydivka, some 5-10 km (3-6 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The blast killed Prokofieva instantly or shortly after due to severe injuries. Her camera operator, Dmitry Volkov, was seriously wounded by shrapnel and blast, but survived.
Consistent with Channel One’s editorial policy towards Ukraine and Russia’s invasion of that country, Prokofieva had repeatedly filed content depicting Ukraine as a failed, Nazi-run state.
According to her reports, the war launched by Russia in February 2022 in Ukraine was necessary to prevent the expansion of NATO, and to end the “oppression” of Russian-speakers in Ukraine. Both narratives are false but widely played up in Russian media like Channel One.
In a photograph posted on her personal Telegram channel on March 25, one day before her death, Prokofieva posted a photograph of herself in military fatigues with a head-mounted camera.
The caption read: “Somewhere on the border with country 404,” using a pro-Russian slur implying Ukraine’s non-existence. Russian leader Vladimir Putin posthumously awarded Prokofieva with the Order of Courage. The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) invaded Russia’s Kursk region on Aug. 6, 2024. Though reduced, the AFU-controlled salient in the Russian Federation territory is still there.
Brovdi, 50, prior to the war, was a successful businessman from the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod. He broke the news of his having become a wanted man in Russia with a post on his popular Telegram news and information page.
Brovdi’s comment on the Kremlin move was insulting and incorporated a classical Russian-language literary reference to drive his point home to Moscow:
“Considering the 69 life sentences I’ve already ‘earned’ by writing down Russian numbers, the source of this charge is pretty weird. I’ll put it in language for you worms: This is a case of ‘Little Anna Spilt the Oil.’”
A self-taught commander without previous military experience, Brovdi, since 2022, went from private soldier to become the chief engineer of and driving force behind the explosive growth of Ukraine’s USF. The Ukrainian military branch includes small tactical aircraft, large long-range aircraft, sea drones and ground drones, and their operators and support staff.
President Volodymyr Zelensky promoted Brovdi to overall USF command in June 2025.
Ukraine’s USF is the world’s largest, most capable, and most lethal military drone operator. In 2025, USF strikes, according to local analysts and USF statistics accounted for between 60-70% of all Russian military equipment losses across the front, and a similar percentage of Russian personnel losses totaling between 800,000 and one million men killed or severely wounded. The main weapons in those battlefield engagements are First Person View (FPV) drones and bomber drones.
A Ukrainian public figure equally well-known for organizing skill as he is for often-humorous narration of video showing Ukrainian drones hitting Russian military vehicles or soldiers, in November, Brovdi announced plans to expand the USF from a current 15,000 to 30,000 service personnel.
Currently, according to Ukraine-based military analysts, Brovdi’s USF operators probably fly 100,000 to 120,000 sorties a month.
Aside from dominating combat along the fighting line with smaller FPV and bomber drones, Brovdi’s USF in late July opened a bombardment campaign targeting Russia’s oil and gas processing industry, and more recently, the Russian Federation’s power grid infrastructure.
As of Monday, per a Kyiv Post count of such strikes, USF units had launched combined drone attacks against Russian energy-related targets at least 225 times. According to energy-industry watch media, the Ukrainian bombardment campaign has reduced Russian national oil processing capacity by about 20%.
The most spectacular USF strike against Russian energy infrastructure thus far in the war probably took place Sept. 19 when a swarm of 12-15 Liyutyi long-range kamikaze drones flew 1,700 km (1,056 miles) through Russian Federation airspace to impact and detonate against buildings and pumping equipment at the Orenburg Gas Processing Plant, the world’s biggest processor for natural gas condensate. The strike ignited about 500 tons of condensate, halted operations for at least a week, and disrupted about 15% of Russian gas exports to China.
The longest-range strike to date, traveling slightly more than 2,000 km (1,243 miles), took place in August and hit the Tyumen Oil Refinery in Tyumen Oblast, Siberia.
“Little Anna” (Russian: Аннушка) is a literary character invented by the Soviet-era satiric writers Ilya Ilf (Fainzerberg) and Evgeny Petrov (Katayev). A nosy, gossipy concierge in the fictional Black Sea city Chornomorsk, the Little Anna character is well-known in Russia as an archetype of a person prone to breaking things and not caring about it. The phrase “Little Anna Spilt the Oil” is taught in Russian schools.
Strikes by Brovdi’s USF against Russia’s Druzhba pipeline in July and August sparked a diplomatic spat and trade of insults with the government of Hungry, whose Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused Brodvi personally of threatening Hungary’s energy independence.
A former Socialist state with undiversified energy resourcing, Hungary receives practically all of its oil from Russia via the Druzhba pipeline. On Aug. 28, Orbán’s Foreign Péter Szijjártó announced Brovdi was banned from the entire Schengen Area in Europe because he had directly attacked Hungarian “energy security.”
Brovdi, an ethnic Hungarian with battle call sign Madyar (Ukrainian transliteration of Magyar), meaning “Hungarian,” countered with charges Orbán and Szijjártó had sold out Hungarian independence to the Kremlin in exchange for personal enrichment, and told the Hungarian national leadership “stick your sanctions and restrictions on visiting Hungary up your arse, Mr ‘Dancer on Bones.’”
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski later the same day took Brovdi and Ukraine’s side with the X statement:
“While Russian missiles sow death in Kyiv, Hungary announces a ban against a brave ethnic Hungarian who dares to fight for Ukraine’s freedom. Commander Magyar: if you need some R&R [rest and recreation] and Hungary won’t let you in, please be our guest in Poland.”
Brovdi’s unit responded post praising pierogi dumplings, a Polish national food.