Day 36 Of The Russo-Ukrainian War On Indonesian Social Media Monitoring: Indonesian Citizens' Safety Is The Main Concern

JAKARTA – The Russo-Ukrainian war has lasted for 36 days. Indonesian netizens have been following the development of the conflict since the beginning of the war. From the search timelines and conversations of Indonesian netizens, the proximity of the issue has become the color of interaction for Indonesian netizens.

The fate of Indonesian citizens in Ukraine and the impact of the war in terms of Indonesian interests are the main issues that are sought after and followed by Indonesian netizens. On the Google search engine on March 11-12 2022, high searches were recorded on the topic of the Russo-Ukrainian war. Among the causes of conflict at the beginning of the war. The word "Ukraine" indicates the peak of the search, which is at 100.

On March 11, 2022, many Indonesian netizens searched for this topic because it coincided with the evacuation of 13 Indonesian citizens in Ukraine. The ceasefire that has not been reached between Russia and Ukraine has caused Indonesian citizens residing in Chernihiv and Lviv to be unable to evacuate.

Until March 12, 2022, efforts to rescue Indonesian citizens are still pending. The Russian troops moved to surround the cities where Indonesian citizens were taking refuge, and Indonesian netizens continued to follow them. The Russian offensive on the 17th day has reached Lviv. The city of Chernihiv has been besieged and hit by Russian missiles from almost all directions.

“Ukraine war updates” became a widely used buzzword. Other keywords “Russia-Ukraine war video” and “Why Russia-Ukraine war” are also widely used. Indonesian netizens are also still looking for the background of the war conflict between the two countries. This is not much different from the search for citizens of the world.

From the Talkwaker application on February 2-8 2022, the main conversation of 7.8 percent of net citizen interactions that appeared was the reason for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The policy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who decided Ukraine to join the European Union and NATO became the beginning of this war conflict. President Zelensky, who comes from a comedian background, is considered a serious threat to Russia's security. Russia is worried that NATO will place its weapons in Ukraine, which borders Russia.

Google Trend recorded the peak of Ukrainian searches on February 24, 2022, which was at 100. On a scale of 0-100 with the search word "Ukraine", it shows an increasing trend of searches by Indonesian netizens shortly after Russia's first attack on Ukraine.

On February 23, 2022, the day before the attack, the score for searching for information related to Russia was only at number 5. This shows that the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine was an important event that caught the attention of Indonesian netizens.

The one-month momentum of Russia's attack on Ukraine on March 24, 2022, became the highlight of the search for Ukraine on the Google search engine. Indonesian citizens who were successfully evacuated are also the cause of the popularity of the topic of Ukraine. The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that on March 18, 2022, the evacuation process for 9 Indonesian citizens was successfully carried out.

After all Indonesian citizens were successfully evacuated in Ukraine and returned to Indonesia, searches on Google also decreased. On March 29, at 15.00 WIB, the search score on Google Trends dropped to 51. The same thing was recorded from searches and conversations on social media.

In the period 23-29 March there were 68.3 percent of searches about Ukraine. There were 81,400 results and 1 million netizen interactions. The conversation was dominated by five topics related to the Russian attack and the weaponry used by Russia. Russia bombarded the area around the capital Kyiv on March 15, 2022, destroying four high-rise buildings in Kyiv.

On March 23-29 2022, there was a downward trend in search and interaction on social media, but Indonesian netizens still paid intense attention to the Russo-Ukrainian war. Currently, the topic of concern for netizens is the impact of the war on Indonesia, will it affect the performance of exports and imports or not.

In addition, the conversations that many netizens make are related to Indonesia's position as President of the G20. This position is a test of Indonesia's foreign policy. Indonesia's desire to invite all members of the G20, including Russia, to the G20 Summit in Bali on November 15-16, certainly many parties are not happy. The United States and Australia are among the countries that asked Indonesia not to invite Russia to the G20 activities. This polemic has also become the talk of netizens.

On social media the top conversation on 23-29 March 2022, sourced from the CNBC Indonesia Youtube account. The best-selling content was the Ukrainian Ambassador to Indonesia who asked Indonesia to reject President Putin's presence at the G20 Summit. The content, which was uploaded on March 24, has been watched 1.47 million times with 25,200 engagements from netizens.

The element of closeness, namely Indonesian citizens trapped in the Russo-Ukrainian war or emotional from the impact of the war, is something that attracts netizens. As of January 2022, there are 191.4 million active social media users in Indonesia. They are very worried about the safety of Indonesian citizens who are still left behind in Ukraine.