TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Indonesia evacuates citizens as Russia intensifies attack on Ukraine
Indonesia has evacuated 31 citizens residing in Ukraine into neighboring Romania and Poland as Russian forces begin to seize the country's airports.
Change Size
Smoke rises from a Russian tank destroyed by Ukrainian forces on the side of a road in the Lugansk region on Feb. 26. (AFP/Anatolii Stepanov )
I
ndonesia has evacuated 31 citizens residing in Ukraine into neighboring Romania and Poland as Russian forces had seized Ukrainian airports.
The group includes six Indonesians and one foreign national married to an Indonesian who were evacuated from Lviv in western Ukraine and arrived in Rzeszow, Poland, on Monday, as well as 25 Indonesians who were evacuated from Odessa in southern Ukraine and arrived in Romania on Sunday. The Indonesian Embassy in Bucharest assisted the evacuation to Romania.
"The government has moved them to safer places [in Poland and Romania] and later [we] will provide flight options [...] The development [of the current situation] on the ground is very fast, many airports are closed," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
He said at least 82 Indonesians were still in the Indonesian Embassy in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, including three diplomats from the embassy in Warsaw who would assist in the next evacuation process. Meanwhile, nine Indonesians are still in the border town of Chernihiv.
Faizasyah did not disclose the exact number of Indonesians residing in Ukraine, but Foreign Ministry citizen protection director Judha Nugraha last week said that at least 153 Indonesians, mostly migrant workers in the manufacturing and hospitality sectors, were registered at Indonesia’s embassy in Ukraine.
Judha also said that the government was preparing a contingency plan for overland evacuations through Poland and Romania as Ukraine's airspace had been closed. He said Jakarta has prepared planes that would fly from neighboring countries to pick up Indonesian citizens.
Read also: Indonesia to evacuate citizens in Ukraine through Poland, Romania
