Two Scots who travelled to Ukraine to help evacuate refugees have told how Russian soldiers held them at gunpoint.
Friends Joe McCarthy, 55, and Gary Taylor, 45, from Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, have been in the war-stricken country since the beginning of the conflict and have been moving people across the border into Poland.
The two, who are landscape gardeners at Joe’s company Ready2Rock, were caught in a convoy of Russian troops while they were heading to the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy.
During the terrifying ordeal while they were headed to a refugee pick up point, they had supplies taken from them and the tyres on their vehicle shot out.
Joe, who is from Airth near Falkirk, told the BBC: “The last couple of days we've been held at gunpoint by Russian troops, we've had our tyres shot out, we've had our truck ransacked, they've stolen my phone.
"Basically, we ended up on the tail of a Russian convoy. They let us get halfway down for some reason, I don't know why, and then they wouldn't let us past.
"We were told to park at the side of the road and wait for the convoy to pass. And then it was just like open field day for troops.
"As so many went past, some would jump out and get us out the van, held us at gunpoint and rummaged through the van.
"They took what food we had, took what cigarettes we had, took my phone away. And then they shot our tyres out, and me and Gaz were like, woah'."
They were eventually allowed to move on before they were helped by local people.
Joe added: "We drove down the road with two flat tyres. Although we did have a spare, it wasn't worth putting on.
"We did about 15 miles on flat tyres and then some locals saw us, and put some second-hand tyres on the car.
"We still managed to get to Sumy. We managed to collect a young student called Rachael from Ireland as well as six other people before the bombing started last night.
"So they were well away and well safe."
Despite the terrifying incident, the pair do not plan on returning to Scotland any time soon and are continuing to ferry people to the border to flee.
"We got around 300km (186 miles) away from Sumy and are now heading towards Uman," Joe said.
"We will stay there for the night then get back to the border tomorrow. Me and Gaz will stay here as long as we can."
He added that his wife was "really upset and crying" when they spoke on the phone on Monday.
"It was her birthday actually, so I obviously didn't make it. But we had a chat and said we can get back into Uman and save these people and she said, you just go for it. So that's what we'll do."
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