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 fight in the war."
He described making friends with an "18-year-old Ukrainian kid" who was "conscripted him on the spot".
"It was just very brutal to see the terror in his eyes knowing he was going to go east and fight the Russians," he explained.
“It was harrowing to watch.”
Mr Marotta began his journey at 4pm local time in Lviv, and arrived in Poland at 7am local time the next day.
He described feeling like part of a “humanitarian nightmare” as he watched men, women and children flee to Poland.
He said people in the street were 'panicked' and calling their relatives while a loudspeaker told them to 'stay calm and seek shelter'.
Explaining his decision to flee, Mr Marotta said: “I was getting a little desperate at this point, the country was under attack – so on a fight or flight impulse, I began walking west along one of the main roads that leads directly from Lviv.
“I just started walking, it was about four in the afternoon and I was just walking along the road with my backpack.
“Soon, I come upon a long line of cars – a gridlock, it was a strange sight … every petrol station I pass, there are signs that (they) have no gas.”
He described seeing elderly people 'hobbling' along the roads with walking sticks.
“There was one grandmother that told me she was going to Poland," he said. "Poland was far away, it’s amazing the result of these people (trying) to escape.”
Mr Marotta also recalled seeing children get "dragged out of bed" by their parents.
“The toddlers were cold, they were hungry, they were tired,” he said.
“They were crying, asking, ‘where are we going? What is going on?’
“Nobody could answer.”
Mr Marotta said he saw many people abandoning their vehicles and flee "carrying anything they could" as an "exodus" of people formed three or fours hours into the journey.
Having reached Poland and been offered tea by a welcoming committee at the border, he said he was “inconsolably happy” after the “longest and worst night” of his life.
Now, Mr Marotta is staying in one of the last available hotel rooms in Przemysl, south-east Polan alongside other Ukrainian refugees.
“The Western world should be should be aware of how terrifying this is for the Ukrainian people,” he added.
“They should turn their eyes right now to the fullest possible humanitarian aid for those on the road right now.
“Those on the road right now are suffering dismally.”
