Ukrainian men 'conscripted on the spot' as refugees undertake 43-mile walk to Poland

Thousands of refugees in Ukraine took on a 43-mile walk to the Polish border as Russian troops launched their invasion of the neighbouring country.

One man described how he saw young men being conscripted "on the spot" as he fled Lviv in western Ukraine.

Manny Marotta, 25, said children were being "dragged out of bed" by families to escape, while partners wept as they were separated from the Ukrainian men being enlisted to fight for their country.

Mr Marotta, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, told the PA news agency that he had been in Ukraine for a week while working as an independent journalist.

When Russia invaded Ukraine on Thursday he woke up to air raid sirens and decided to flee Lviv as rumours spread about an incoming Russian bombing.

During the journey, he said he saw Ukrainian men being taken off buses heading for the border as officials told them that men between the age of 18 and 60 were not allowed to leave the country.

Mr Marotta said: “They were saying, ‘say goodbye to your girlfriend, to your wife, say goodbye to your mothers and daughters, you’re going east’.

“I started seeing these surreal scenes of fathers saying, ‘I don’t want to leave my family,’ and Ukrainian soldiers yanking them away … Mothers were protesting, they were screaming: ‘Why are you doing this?’

“There was this guy standing up on a box saying ‘forget your wives, forget about your girlfriends – you need to defend your country. Don’t be a coward.'”

Mr Marotta added he will “never forget” meeting a 24-year-old pulled away by soldiers with “AK-style weapons” to conscript.

“He had no choice, he gave me this look that I’ll never forget, it was a sad sort of smile … I hope he’s okay.

“It was just tragic – fathers being torn from their kids to go