Russian recruiters have stepped up a campaign to recruit citizens of Indonesia — the world’s largest archipelagic country — to fight against Ukraine on the side of the Russian Armed Forces.
According to Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service, recruitment networks linked to the aggressor state are targeting residents of Indonesia’s island regions, using financial incentives, promises of high salaries and offers of Russian citizenship. Recruiters primarily target people from socially vulnerable groups and economically depressed areas, offering sums several times higher than average incomes in their regions.
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According to Ukrainian intelligence, the recruitment network operates under the cover of recruitment agencies and employment intermediaries offering jobs in Russia in the security, construction or logistics sectors. However, after arriving in Russia, foreign nationals are forced to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence and are then sent to training grounds for accelerated military training before being deployed to areas of active combat.
Ukrainian intelligence says the recruitment of Indonesian nationals is intended to compensate for the Russian army’s combat losses without launching another wave of open mobilisation inside Russia.
Such actions by Russia violate not only international law but also Indonesian legislation, which strictly prohibits the participation of its citizens in foreign armed conflicts and mercenary activities. Foreign policy and law enforcement agencies continue to record cases involving the recruitment of citizens from countries of the Global South, whom the Kremlin views as an accessible and inexpensive source of manpower for maintaining the intensity of its military operations.
