By Vitalii Hnidyi and Herbert Villarraga KHARKIV/KOSTIANTYNIVKA, Ukraine Dec 25 (Reuters) – L eonid Onyshchenko, a gruff-voiced 63-year-old Ukrainian soldier with a thick moustache, has spent many a Christmas away from his household, however listening to his little grandson Petro’s voice over the cellphone from far-off is as exhausting as ever.

Onyshchchenko joined the territorial defence pressure after Moscow’s February invasion, and has volunteered supporting Ukraine’s military within the struggle in opposition to Russian-backed separatists within the nation’s east since 2014. While he’s stationed within the Donetsk area which has seen among the heaviest battles, his daughter Maryna and her husband Vitalii have been celebrating Christmas at dwelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest metropolis, regularly beneath Russian assault.

Holding her three-month-old son Yaroslav with one hand, Maryna took a Christmas cake out of oven with the opposite. Vitalii helped two different sons, Petro and Tais, dress earlier than the festive Christmas dinner. In the previous, Ukrainian Christians largely celebrated Christmas in early January. This yr the vacation is well known by many on December 25, as Ukraine’s essential Orthodox Church has damaged with Moscow and turned its face in direction of the West.

War has scattered the household. Maryna’s two older daughters and her mom fled to the western metropolis of Lviv. As the household gathers across the desk, Maryna calls her father to want him merry Christmas. Little Petro takes the cellphone. “I just want to tell you that Christmas is coming and Santa Claus is coming. I was a good boy,” the boy says.

Speaking is a consolation, says Onyshchenko, identified amongst fellow troopers beneath the nom-de-guerre ‘Deer’. “On one hand, we will see and hear each other. But on the other hand, we are hundreds kilometers apart. I cannot compare it with anything. But nevertheless, we are one big family.” (Writing by Margaryta Chornokondratenko; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Peter Graff)

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