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The brother of a Turkish sailor killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on a Black Sea cargo ship says he received a message from Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) commander, Robert "Magyar" Brovdi, telling him his brother "got what he deserved," after he wrote newspaper columns calling for accountability over the attack.
Abbas Cakar, editor-in-chief of Kocaeli Gundem and the brother of Savas Cakar, the 54-year-old engine room worker killed in the July 21 attack on the Turkish-flagged MV Reyhan Sari, said the message arrived from Brovdi's official email address following his second column on the killing.
According to the brother of the Turkish sailor, Brovdi wrote in the email, sent from what Cakar described as Ukraine's official state account: "Your brother consciously chose this path. What they did contributed to the enrichment of the Russian Federation, and he got what he deserved."
"Two days ago, a comment and email showed up in response to my column," Cakar said, who spoke to Ihlas News Agency (IHA).
"When I checked, I found out it was an official email account belonging to Ukraine's military. When I checked the name behind it, I learned he was the commander of these unmanned aerial vehicles. He sent a message that fully defended this act, which amounts to a war crime, and amounts to this massacre, 'He got what he deserved.' I already had anger inside me; after this email arrived, my anger doubled," he added.
The Cakar said the Reyhan Sari was a purely commercial vessel.
"These are ships engaged entirely in commercial transport," he said.
"We learned that the munitions typically used in attacks on ships are also heavy munitions that violate the Geneva Convention and constitute war crimes. During this process, we lived through our grief and buried our loved one," the brother of the Turkish sailor noted.
Cakar said he wrote the column to process his grief, not expecting a response of this kind.
"For months, someone who commits this kind of war crime, who treats this not as war but as a game, has gone and emailed me," he said.
"Can you imagine a senior commander of a country, writing from the state's official email address, saying things like 'he got what he deserved' to someone who is grieving? Something like this cannot happen. This alone shows how unqualified this person is. It is absolutely unacceptable. This situation fuels the anger inside me," Cakar added.
"I have my grief, but I have an anger that weighs even heavier than my grief, and this anger knows no rest, not until the necessary legal process is opened against these people and results are achieved," he said.
"Many people tell me: 'You're rowing against the current.' I have lost a life. From now on, I will pursue this loss everywhere. My brother is gone, my very being is gone, I buried him unjustly. I couldn't see his face one last time. I hadn't seen him for months before he went. He has two children, one of whom has special needs," the brother of the killed Turkish sailor said.
Brovdi, who uses the call sign "Magyar" or "Madyar," has served as commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces since June 3, 2025.
Before Russia's full-scale invasion, he worked in grain trading and co-founded the BrovdiArt foundation. He enlisted in Kyiv's Obolon Territorial Defense on Feb. 7, 2022, joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Feb. 24, and took part in the defense of Kyiv, including the battles of Irpin, Bucha and Borodyanka.
In May-June 2022, Brovdi formed a 26-person drone unit known as "Madyar's Birds," which later grew into the 414th Separate Unmanned Systems Forces Brigade.
The Reyhan Sari, an Istanbul-registered dry cargo ship, was struck by a drone on July 21-22 while sailing from Russia's Taman port with coal bound for Trabzon.
A crew member working in the engine room was killed at the scene, and additional crew members were wounded. The ship's operating company said the attack damaged the vessel's communication systems, initially making it difficult to establish contact and confirm conditions aboard.
The ship continued under its own power and later reached Turkish waters before docking at Trabzon.
The Reyhan Sari's owner, T and O Denizcilik, and 15 crew members are preparing to file a complaint against Ukraine with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, alleging the vessel was deliberately targeted, according to Turkish maritime outlet HaberDenizde.com.
The attack was part of a broader escalation of Black Sea drone strikes on shipping that has drawn repeated Turkish protest.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan condemned the pattern of attacks during a visit to Kyiv, saying "targeting ports, tankers, and fishing boats ... cannot be justified."
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