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Ukraine is holding an Indonesian citizen as a prisoner of war for the first time. He is a 49-year-old man from East Java, identified only by the initials AS. Initial reports said he was from Blitar; later reports suggested Jember. According to the Ukrainian government’s I Want to Live project, which handles surrenders by soldiers fighting for Russia, his unit was hit by a Ukrainian drone strike in the Zaporizhzhia region. He then reached Ukrainian-held territory, where he was detained.
The Foreign Ministry says the Indonesian embassy in Kyiv has received the information and has requested consular access to verify his identity and condition.
“Construction work” that turned into a combat contract
AS’s story follows a pattern that should alarm anyone who has watched Indonesian job seekers being recruited online. According to I Want to Live, he was recruited on May 27, 2026, and flew to Moscow on July 22 with another man. Once there, they signed what they were told was a one-year construction contract. It was in fact a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence, and AS was assigned to the 39th Brigade and sent to the front.
The numbers are what worry me most. The Ukrainian project says around 283 Indonesians were recruited to fight for Russia in the first nine months of 2026, compared with fewer than ten over the previous three years. At home, West Jakarta police say they have broken up one recruitment network that sent at least 23 Indonesians to Russia. Six suspects have been named, including a Russian and a Ukrainian national. At least one Indonesian recruit has been killed and others badly wounded. Recruits were reportedly promised salaries of up to Rp50 million a month.
This is trafficking, and we should call it that
The public debate in Indonesia has been quick to judge. Online commentators call these men “mercenaries” and note that under Law No. 12 of 2006 on Citizenship, a citizen who voluntarily joins a foreign army without the President’s permission can lose their citizenship.
That legal point is real. But treating AS as a willing soldier of fortune misses what happened. A 49-year-old man from a farming area does not wake up one day wanting to fight in the trenches of Zaporizhzhia. He was lied to by a recruiting network that used social media job adverts in logistics, border security and “defence construction”. That is the same method used by the online-scam compounds in Cambodia and Myanmar that have trapped thousands of Indonesians. The legal term for it is human trafficking (TPPO), and Indonesia has a specific law against it.
The government’s priorities should be clear:
- Consular protection first. Whatever AS signed, he is an Indonesian citizen and is entitled to embassy support, legal assistance and protection under the Geneva Conventions.
- No automatic loss of citizenship for trafficking victims. The citizenship law refers to joining a foreign army voluntarily. A contract obtained through deception is not voluntary.
- Go after the recruiters and the platforms. West Jakarta police have made a good start. The Ministry of Migrant Workers and the communications ministry should now require social media platforms to remove “work in Russia” adverts as quickly as they remove gambling ads.
- Talk to Moscow. Jakarta has good relations with Russia and should use them to ask for the release of Indonesian nationals from military contracts they did not knowingly sign.
AS is the first Indonesian prisoner of war in this conflict. If recruitment continues at the current rate, he will not be the last.
Sources: CNN Indonesia; Surabaya Inside; Suara.com; Metapos.
