Ludmilla Drago



"I'm afraid for my husband's life. We have threats of violence everywhere. We are not in politics! All I want is for my husband to be safe and to be treated fairly. You call him a killer. He's a professional fighter, not a killer! You have this belief that you are better than us! You have this belief that this country is so very good and we are so very bad! You have this belief that you are so fair and we are so very cruel!"

- Ludmilla berating the press after they jeered Drago for killing Apollo in the ring.

Ludmilla Vobet Drago is a recurring antagonist of the Rocky series, serving as a supporting antagonist in the 1985 film Rocky IV and the 2018 film Creed II. She is a Soviet gold-medal swimmer who was the ex-wife and spokeswoman to Soviet captain Ivan Drago.

She was portrayed by Brigitte Nielsen.

Rocky IV
Ludmilla first appeared arriving to America with her husband, along with his manager Nicolai Koloff and trainers Manuel Vega and Sergei Rimsky, as Drago intends to fight Rocky Balboa in an exhibition match to prove that Soviet boxers are superior in combat than than of Americans. To that end, Ludmilla speaks on behalf of Drago during interviews, even scoffing off at the idea that Drago would be using steroids to rev up his strength.

However, former champion Apollo Creed decides to come out from retirement to fill in for Rocky as he wants to refute Drago's intentions to the world. During an exhibition match between Creed and Apollo at Las Vegas, Ludmilla watches as Drago and Creed boxed against each other. However, Drago's strength proved to be too much for Creed, allowing Drago to finally punch down Creed in one fatal punch. Ludmilla grins at this as she watches Creed falls to his death, much to horror of Rocky and the American public, even Drago himself shows no remorse on this by saying "If he dies... he dies."

With the American public outraged at Creed's death, Ludmilla grew worried over Drago's life since he's being jeered for causing it, even accusing the public to make the world believe that the Soviets are cruel in nature. Eventually, a furious Rocky decides to take action by challenging Drago to fight in Russia at Christmas, to which the Soviets accepted. As such, Ludmilla helps Drago in training out for the match, even watching as the trainers inject a few steroids on him.

During the match, Drago seemed to gain the upper hand (much to Ludmilla's delight), but Rocky finally turns the table, earning the respect of the Soviet audience. This left Ludmilla very dismayed as she roots for her husband to finish off Rocky, even after Drago renounces his loyalty to the Soviets. At the final round of the match, Rocky was able to avenge Creed's death by defeating Drago with a knockout punch, thus winning the challenge. This left Ludmilla very furious and embarrassed over her husband's defeat.

Creed II
Ludmilla returned in Creed II, where it is revealed that she had given birth to Drago' son Viktor in 1990, and that she divorced Drago afterwards, leaving him to raise Vitkor as a fierce boxer as himself.

Upon hearing that Viktor will go on to challenge Creed's son Adonis (who is Rocky's protege), Ludmilla hopes that the event will bring back honor and glory in the Drago name. However, during the second match between Adonis and Viktor, Ludmilla is discomforted to see the tide of the fight shift to Adonis' favor and decided to depart away from the scene along with several of Viktor's supporters. This action is what almost caused Viktor to lose his will to fight, though Drago manages to stop this by throwing in the towel to spare Viktor from any further pain.