TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Foreign Affairs Ministry urged Indonesian citizens in Ukraine to gather at the Indonesian Embassy in Kyiv following the escalating conflict in the country as President of Russia Vladimir Putin announced a military operation.

“We ask Indonesian citizens in Ukraine to gather at the Indonesian Embassy in Kyiv. For those who are unable to reach the embassy, we ask them to stay home while we are looking for safe routes for evacuation,” said the ministry's citizen protection director Judha Nugraha on Thursday, Feb. 24.

Based on the embassy’s data, there are 139 Indonesians in Ukraine. Most of them live in Kyiv. At the border, there is one citizen residing in Donetsk, two in Luhansk, and five in Kharkiv.

Judha said the embassy has designed an emergency plan if the situation worsened and a contingency plan in anticipatory measures with three emergency levels.

According to him, the ministry and the embassy are now prioritizing the safety of citizens and have yet to plan for returning them to Indonesia.

Judha also confirmed that 138 Indonesian citizens in Ukraine are in good condition and healthy, and are all connected in a group chat. “The current main priority is the safety of Indonesian citizens. So we will first make sure they are in a safe location, which in this case is the Indonesian Embassy in Kyiv,” Judha concluded.

Read: Indonesia Condemns Russia's Attack on Ukraine

DANIEL AHMAD