Four years ago, Robert Brovdi was more comfortable in an auction house like Christie’s than in the grimy trenches. A wealthy grain merchant at the time, and his sideline as an art collector, fragments of his pre-war life remain in the paintings and sculptures by Ukrainian artists scattered around the bunker. It’s on display next to missile casings and captured drones. He is an ethnic Hungarian from Uzhhorod, western Ukraine, and is best known by his military call sign, Magyar. Before the war he was clean-shaven, and now he sports a long ginger and gray-flecked beard.
