Indonesia Asks Russia to Stop Recruiting Indonesian Citizens Into Its Military and to Put Indonesia on an Exemption List
Yvonne Mewengkang, spokesperson for Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on November 1 that the Indonesian government had formally asked the Russian government through diplomatic channels to take the necessary steps to ensure that Indonesian citizens are not recruited into the Russian military or other military-related formations through any channel, and had also asked Moscow to place Indonesia on a list of countries whose citizens are exempt from all Russian military recruitment mechanisms, to be implemented immediately and effectively. The request followed reports that an Indonesian citizen had been killed while fighting in Ukraine.
Ukraine's Defence Intelligence Directorate said on October 27 that an Indonesian citizen identified by the initials MT had died about a week after reaching the front following his signing with the Russian military; multiple outlets later identified him as Muhammad Taufiq, 48, a former Jakarta taxi driver who signed a contract in April 2026. Figures released by Ukraine's I Want to Live project indicated that at least 283 Indonesian citizens joined Russian forces to fight in Ukraine between January and September 2026, compared with no more than 10 over the preceding several years combined; another tally put the total number of Indonesians who have joined Russian forces since the start of the war at about 292. The casualty report and the figures come from Ukrainian institutions and have not been independently verified by Indonesia.
Mewengkang said the Indonesian government was paying particular attention to recruitment practices suspected of amounting to human trafficking. Indonesian police subsequently named 13 suspects in related cases involving 58 alleged victims. Yusril Ihza Mahendra, Indonesia's coordinating minister for law, human rights, immigration and corrections, said on November 3 that authorities had not yet reached a conclusion on why more Indonesians were joining foreign militaries, and that police were investigating possible trafficking and recruitment fraud.
Mewengkang said Indonesia's embassy in Moscow was verifying the dead man's identity and military status while protecting his personal data. Russia's embassy in Jakarta did not immediately respond to media questions. New individual cases have continued to emerge since: a 49-year-old Indonesian man captured by Ukrainian forces in the Zaporizhzhia region, who said he believed he had signed a one-year construction contract in Moscow, as reported by GSM on November 11, is one such case.
(Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia)
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于雅加达的印度尼西亚外交部大楼。照片：印度尼西亚外交部，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia building in Jakarta. Photo by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
