Japanese media reported on November 3 that Russia is luring job-seeking foreigners, forcibly deploying them to the Ukrainian front lines, and subjecting them to inhumane treatment such as tattooing identification numbers on their bodies.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, an Indonesian national named Ayok Sukamto traveled to Moscow, Russia, in June after being offered a construction job through an acquaintance, and signed a contract written in Russian.

Not receiving a translated version, he was unaware of the contract's contents, which he later found out was an agreement with the Russian Ministry of Defense.

He told the Yomiuri Shimbun that he was bused to Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, which is occupied by the Russian military, where he was forced to undergo military training and provided with poor living conditions and meals.

Ayok also claimed that the Russian military managed his identity by tattooing an identification number, "CA-242436," onto his left chest.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense criticized this practice, comparing it to how Nazi Germany tattooed identification numbers on the bodies of Jews at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Ayok attempted to desert, but he was caught, beaten, and forced to serve in the Russian military on the Zaporizhzhia front in southern Ukraine.

Later, after the Russian soldier guarding him was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack, he surrendered to Ukrainian forces and was able to return home.

In a report released in late October, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry under the United Nations Human Rights Council pointed out that Russia is luring men from 29 developing countries in Asia and Africa with false job advertisements before mobilizing them to the Ukrainian front lines, calling it a violation of international human rights law.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)