Empty Chair Day on Nov. 15 spotlights Ukrainian journalists still imprisoned in Russia, with authorities using occupation courts and detention outside normal international protections. The campaign, led by PEN International and observed in Ukraine since 2018, focuses on writers, journalists, and media workers unlawfully detained, held captive, or missing due to their work. Ukrainian institutions have no single verified figure for how many media workers are held in Russian captivity. Different monitoring bodies report different totals: at least 27 Ukrainian journalists are unlawfully detained in occupied territories and Russia, including 17 from temporarily occupied Crimea. The Crimean Tatar Resource Center cites 20 Crimean journalists behind bars and says occupation courts have sentenced 29 civilian media workers from the peninsula. A Coordination Headquarters representative for the treatment of prisoners of war quotes an even larger estimate of 45 Ukrainian journalists and media activists, with 33 confirmed and seven listed as missing. The article describes how Russia creates barriers to outside oversight, including illegally forcing Russian citizenship on detainees and trying them in occupation courts, which is intended to sever them from international legal protection. It also says Russia withdraw from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture ends independent monitoring of detention facilities. In one named case, a journalist from Crimea was abducted by FSB agents from a bus stop in 2022. She was later charged with alleged “unlawful acquisition of explosives” and sentenced to seven years in prison in December 2022, where she is described as facing constant abuse and torture. For now, Ukrainian captives described in the piece remain unlawfully detained, with Russia limiting access for independent monitors and with the exact scope of cases still not consolidated into one figure.