In February 2022, shortly before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Brovdi joined the Territorial Defence Forces of Ukraine, where he was assigned to the 206th Battalion of the 241st Brigade.[13][14] During the Kyiv offensive, he took part in the evacuation of civilians from Irpin during the battle for the city, and took part in fighting in Bucha and Borodianka.[13][15] In late April, his unit was sent to the front line in the Kherson area of the southern campaign.[13][15]

After some time, Brovdi decided that he could be doing more with his entrepreneurial skills instead of "sitting in a sodden trench".[15] Against bureaucratic procedure,[13] he raised funds on his own to buy a "fleet of drones", with which he set up the aerial reconnaissance unit "Madyar's Birds". The unit was a part of the 28th Mechanized Brigade from April to August 2022.[15][16] The unit is composed of "a few dozen" pilots, with hundreds of drones.[2] Like much of the Ukrainian army, the drones used by the unit are the Chinese-made civilian DJI Mavics.[17][18] The unit is involved in five primary types of drone reconnaissance: locating enemy forces, patrolling the front line, artillery spotting, attacks with kamikaze drones, and occasionally dropping explosive devices on enemy soldiers.[13][15]

Madyar's Birds were incorporated into the 59th Motorized Brigade in August 2022,[16] and took part in the battle of Bakhmut[2] until March 2023, when Brovdi said in a video posted to social media that the unit had been ordered to withdraw after "110 days" of fighting.[3]

In April 2023, Brovdi warned that the Chinese government may cut off Ukrainian military access to the Mavic drones, and urged Ukrainian soldiers to be careful with the drones they had.[19]
Shoulder sleeve insignia of 414th Strike UAV Battalion "Madyar's Birds"Madyar's Birds often releases videos of their "greatest successes" on the battlefield, which feature Russian soldiers dying, which journalists have described as having "undoubtable propagandavalue".[17][20] Brovdi has become a popular figure in Ukraine among "war-watchers" on social media for his "salty analogies and metaphors shrouded in black humor" and "colorful western Ukrainianisms" in his narration of videos he publishes of his unit's activities.[15]

Brovdi was awarded the medal "For the Defense of Ukraine [[url=https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D1%96%D0%B4%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%B0%D0%BA%D0%B0_% D0%9F%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B7%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1 %82%D0%B0_%D0%A3%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%97%D0%BD%D0% B8_%C2%AB%D0%97%D0%B0_%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%80%D0% BE%D0%BD%D1%83_%D0%A3%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%97%D0%B D%D0%B8%C2%BB]uk]" by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on 28 August 2023[21] and the Hero of Ukraine on 8 May 2025.[22]

The Madyar's Birds unit has been taking part in the fighting in and around Krynkysince at least November 2023.[23] On 16 January 2024, Brovdi announced on his Telegram channel that Madyar's Birds had been incorporated into the Ukrainian Marine Corps as the 414th Marine Strike UAV Battalion.[14][24]

He was appointed commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces on 3 June 2025.