Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yvonne Mewengkang said the government was verifying the information through Indonesian missions abroad and coordinating with relevant ministries and agencies.
“Information regarding the identities, citizenship status, recruitment process and the nature of the involvement of the individuals mentioned still needs to be further verified,” Yvonne said, as quoted by Antara news agency.
Yvonne stressed that Indonesia has clear legal provisions governing the involvement of its citizens in a foreign military, including consequences for their citizenship.
“If the involvement of Indonesian citizens in the foreign armed forces in question is verified, it would constitute an individual action and does not represent the policy or position of the Indonesian government,” she said.
The government, she said, would look into whether the Indonesians had been recruited through deception, exploitation or job offers that did not match their actual purpose.
“If any Indonesian citizens are found to have been victims in the process, the Indonesian government will take the necessary protection measures in accordance with applicable laws,” she said.
The eight individuals have been identified by FISU as:
According to FISU, the Kremlin promises high pay, non-combat jobs, expedited Russian citizenship and attractive social benefits to people from dozens of countries.
“They often do not even know where they will actually be sent. Most of them end up on the front lines without training, and some are killed within just the first few weeks,” FISU said in its statement.
The same pattern has been seen with citizens of Nepal, Cuba, Kenya and India, FISU said.
The Russian military has had an estimated 450,000 deaths among 1.4 million casualties since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in July.
While North Korea has sent thousands of troops to fight for Russia, many of the other countries’ citizens have reportedly been lured by deceptive offers of civilian jobs.
Exactly how many people were falsely recruited, and how many signed up as mercenaries, is unclear.
“Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country with a population of more than 280 million, has now joined the list of countries that have become new markets for the Kremlin to obtain cheap manpower for the war,” said FISU.
Besides filling personnel shortages on the front lines, FISU said the recruited foreigners are also used as propaganda material to portray global support for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces have seen an estimated 125,000 to 150,000 deaths among a total of 525,000 to 625,000 casualties, according to CSIS.