The seven-year-old son of a captured Ukrainian soldier has written a letter to “the Christmas angel” saying all he wants this year is for his dad to come home.

His mother, Anastasiia Gondul, 45, said she has had no news about her husband Artem, 39, one of the soldiers who defended the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, in southern Ukraine – the last bastion of resistance before the city fell to the Russians.

He was forced to surrender in May after coming under heavy bombardment, and has been held in captivity ever since.

Ms Gondul, whose husband suffered a severe wound to his pelvis when a mine exploded at the steelworks, told i she felt “helpless” as she had not had any news ofArtem since she saw footage of him in hospital on Russian TV, following a missile attack in Olenivka in July where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed.

Their son Bogdan, has written a letter to “the Christmas angel”, saying: “I have a wish and a dream that my father was released from captivity.

“And that the war in Ukraine will end and we will be happy again.”

He ended the letter saying: “My dad is a defender of Ukraine. I’m waiting for my dad to come home from captivity.”

Asked what their plans were for Christmas this year, Ms Gondul, who now lives in Kryvyi Rih, central Ukraine, said: “We will not celebrate Christmas. Because while he is in captivity, we have no holidays.”

The former beautician, who started taking antidepressants to cope with her anxiety, said her husband appears in her dreams at times, and she doesn’t want to wake up.

Ms Gondul said what her husband saw was worse than a “horror movie” and she feared for his mental and physical well-being.

“Stolen spring, stolen summer and autumn. A stolen life. And my husband… Also stolen now. By outsiders… who have come to our land. Into our homes. I have never hated so much,” she said.

Despite it being 10 months since she last saw him, she said: “I don’t know where the strength comes from. Faith must not be lost.”

Bogdan is one of hundreds of children wishing for peace and safety for their families this Christmas, as the war rages on in Ukraine.

In Kharkiv – Ukraine’s second-largest city, located in the east of the country – an underground Christmas village acts as a bomb shelter amid ongoing missile strikes and power loss in the area.

Pictures show a massive Christmas tree brightening up a metro station adorned with chandeliers. There is also a mailbox for children to drop off letters for Grandfather Frost, the Slavic version of Father Christmas.

Nine-year-old Maksym Pushnir dropped off his letter at the mailbox, where he asked for two things: a PlayStation 5 and peace, NPR reported.

Emma Kochalka, four, ran to hug Grandfather Frost as she spotted him just outside the station. Her mum said she asked him for a fluffy white cat toy and for her dad, a soldier, to return soon.

‘There are no holidays’

Hanna Biliaieva, 27, said she won’t be celebrating Christmas this year as “I can’t have fun while my husband and his friends are in captivity”. Her husband Alexander, 26, was also an Azovstal defender who remains a prisoner of war.

Ms Biliaieva told i the latest news about her husband came from a man who saw him in captivity and said he weighed approximately 40kg.

Ms Biliaeva, a freelance illustrator, was also told that Alexander was among those tortured, and that in captivity the prisoners were “humiliated, forced to squat, and many were tortured during interrogations”.

She is currently in Norway, where her mother and sisters have found asylum, but she plans on returning to Ukraine to keep volunteering.

She said her Christmas will be “gloomy and scary” and that for the families of Azovstal defenders, “there are no holidays”.

She added: “When I imagine what needs to be celebrated, my heart shrinks and I want to cry, because the one with whom I promised to spend my whole life is in captivity.”

“There are no holidays for me. I can’t have fun when my husband and his friends are in captivity.”

Speaking of the Azovstal defenders who remain captive, she said: “Children grow up without fathers. Wives and mothers go slowly crazy with tears and pain. We can only pray.”