- Pittsburgh's Manny Marotta decided to leave Lviv, Ukraine, on the day of the Russian invasion.
- But all the trains had been booked and no cars were available, so he had to walk for 20 hours.
- He saw thousands of refugees at the border and said Ukraine needs more humanitarian aid.
After waking up to air-raid sirens in Lviv, western Ukraine, a US citizen walked 50 miles to Przemyśl, Poland, to escape the Russian invasion.
From Pittsburgh, freelance journalist Manny Marotta headed to Ukraine to cover the war, "but then the war found me," he told Insider. He thought better of it and decided to flee.
The 25-year-old's first choice was to take the train, but there were no seats left, and all the taxi and car hire services were canceled, so he started walking.
—Ukraine Conflict Live 2022 (@UkraineLive2022) February 25, 2022
His 20-hour walk was an odyssey through a country at war. Some parts of the journey in the Ukrainian countryside were strangely peaceful, he said, but as he approached the border with Poland, the impact of the conflict on the civilian population became clear.
The first thing he saw was petrol stations, 15 miles from the Polish border, adorned with signs reading "WE ARE OUT OF GAS," with abandoned cars lining the roads.
He told Insider he wondered where all the people had gone. Seven miles from the border, he found out.
"The occupants of these cars had abandoned their vehicles taking everything they could carry.
"You could see the entire family pitching in, with children carrying heavy bags, grandmothers carrying heavy bags. You saw elderly people in wheelchairs and children in strollers, people were doing their very best to roll them through the mud, and it was impossible," Marotta told Insider.
When Marotta finally reached the border, he said more than 1,000 people were queuing. "There were people in the crowd who were fainting because they were standing in this line, sandwiched against one another," he said.
Families split so men can fight for Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday announced that conscription would take place and that no men between 18-60 would be allowed to leave Ukraine.
As he queued with the refugees, an official walked up-and-down shouting, "say goodbye to your daughters, mothers, and girlfriends; you must turn back and fight the Russian invader!"
A woman screamed and begged for her husband not to be conscripted. He was taken away, Marotta told Insider.
Marotta sent Insider a video where he talked to 24-year-old Max, who said, "I hope I will be so lucky to avoid the line, but I hear the men shouting for us to leave," the interview was then cut when Max was told to leave and return to his home.
"There was just a lot of crying. The children didn't understand what was going on. They were asking when can we go home? Why is it so cold? Why have we been walking for so long?" he said.
'Everyone was pushing each other and throwing their baggage and stuff. It was a panic.'
Alongside the "tragic separations," Marotta said, there was chaotic desperation among the people escaping Ukraine's war zone.
"Every time that gate opened, there was a human crush at the gate. Everyone was pushing each other and throwing their baggage and stuff. It was a panic," he said.
Once on the Polish side, sanity was restored. "They gave us doughnuts, they gave us tea, and the passport control was quick, and then we got on a bus to Prezemyśl," said Marotta.
Reuters report that 29,000 people had crossed the border from Ukraine to Poland on Thursday alone, and the Polish government has previously said it is ready to accept 1,000,000 refugees from Ukraine.
Marotta said, "more humanitarian aid needs to be given to Ukraine right now. These refugees need food, clothing, shelter, supplies, toiletries."
Unwashed and still to eat a proper meal when he spoke to Insider, Marotta said he just felt "this veil of relief fall over me" after his 20-hour trek through the war zone. But what he witnessed on his journey will stay with him for a long time.
"What I saw was something that should not exist in the 21st century. It's inexcusable," Marotta said.