“Empty Chairs: Find, Free, Remember”: Ukrainian performance in Spain highlights ongoing war

In Valencia's central square, the organization Bandera de Ucrania led a poignant demonstration titled "Empty Chairs: Find, Free, Remember." This event served as a heartfelt appeal to the global community, urging efforts to locate the missing, free Ukrainian prisoners of war and honor the memory of Ukraine's fallen heroes.

Bandera de Ucrania reported that.

In the central Virgen Square in Valencia, 25 chairs were placed, each of which represented a specific human fate:

• 11 chairs are dedicated to the missing (7 of them are defenders who disappeared three weeks ago),
• two chairs – to prisoners of war, one of whom is a defender of Azovstal,
• six ​​chairs – nameless, symbolizing heroes about whom there is currently no information,
• four chairs were with emotional appeals: find, release, do not forget,
• two chairs were placed in honor of Ukrainians who had lived in Valencia but returned to their homeland to fight after the war began. One was for Vitalii Pokhyla, a successful business owner in Spain who died in February 2023 in Vuhledar. The other commemorated Artur Samsonian, a member of the Ukraine Association, who lost his life in December 2023 in Bakhmut.

^{Photo: Anna Shyshkova, Anton Shevchenko, Stanislav Huskov}The event was attended by relatives and friends of the missing, deceased, and imprisoned. Participants sang the National Anthem of Ukraine, observed a minute of silence to honor the fallen heroes, and distributed prepared leaflets in both Spanish and English.

The leaflets contained information about the conditions of detention and torture in Russian captivity, prepared on the basis of the "Moscow Convention" by the Ombudsman's office. The Convention is based on the testimonies of former prisoners, which help to understand the scale and cruelty of violations of international humanitarian law by the Russian side.

"This performance aims to draw attention to the tragedy of missing and captured Ukrainians, to emphasize the need for their release and to support families waiting for their loved ones. Each of these chairs is a life that was cut short by war. These are voices that disappeared in the silence of captivity or obscurity. We were silent today so that the world could hear. Lit candles are not just fire. This is hope that their journey home is not yet complete. To forget them is to lose yourself. Remember, act, support Ukraine, because its struggle is a struggle for humanity and freedom," the organizers, representatives of Bandera de Ucrania, note.

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On January 6, a rally was held in support of the captured marines on Independence Square in Kyiv. Relatives and friends gathered to once again remind society and the world that they are waiting for the exchange of those who were not afraid to stand up for Ukraine's free future and now need our support.